A political economy theory of foreign investment: An alternative approach

The present paper uses the political economy model developed by Grossman and Helpman and studies the equilibrium of a game between the two countries; the home country, which exercises the trade policy for maximizing its objective function, and the foreign country, which controls the level of its capital export for the similar purpose. It is shown that if the production costs of the two countries are identical, the equilibrium of the game in which the two countries make simultaneous move will very likely achieve free trade.     

Estimating the Impact of Time-Invariant Variables on FDI with Fixed Effects

This paper applies the panel fixed effects with vector decomposition estimator to three FDI data sets to estimate the impact of time-invariant variables on FDI while including fixed effects. We find that the omission of fixed effects significantly biases the results, leading to contradictory predictions regarding the effect of trade costs and culture across data sets. After eliminating these biases, the differences across data sets largely disappear and many time-invariant variables consistently indicate the importance of vertical FDI. This suggests that some controversies in the literature may be driven by the extent to which unaccounted fixed effects biases vary across different data sets. JEL no.  F14, F23     

Promoting exports: the role of inward FDI in China

Since the late 1970s, exports and inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in China have risen dramatically under the open-door policy. The critical role of FDI in China's exports may be indicated by the fact that exports by foreign affiliates in China in 1998 were US$81 billion, comprising 44% of China's total exports in that year. While there is considerable evidence on the FDI export linkage in China, systematically empirical analyses have been limited. This paper investigates the issue using panel data at the provincial level in the period of 1986–1997. The findings support the widely held belief that increased levels of FDI positively affect provincial manufacturing export performance.     

Foreign direct investment, agglomerations, and demonstration effects: An empirical investigation

Previous studies have shown that the localisation of firms can be an important factor in attracting new foreign direct investment into a host country. The authors distinguish between “efficiency agglomerations” which arise as firms increase their efficiency by locating close to each other, and “demonstration effects” whereby existing firms send signals to new investors as to the reliability and attractiveness of the host country. They try to disentangle these two effects by examining the location of US firms in Ireland. They find that both sources of agglomerations have been important determinants of US firm entry into Ireland. JEL no. F23     

西部地区利用外商直接投资的制约因素与对策

制约西部地区外商直接投资的因素是:经济发展水平仍然较低,对生产性活动投资的引致能力不足;产业结构优化度低,未能形成承接新一轮国际产业转移的平台;未能得到根本改变的不容乐观的投资环境,降低了外商直接投资的动力;绝对过剩并且素质低下的劳动力,难以适应外商对资本与技术密集型产业转移的需要;完善度和成熟度仍然较低的市场体系,提高了外资获利成本。为提高西部地区吸引外商直接投资能力,西部地区应完善公共基础设施、加强人力、资本的开发和引进,调整引进外资结构。     

Outward FDI and Local Employment Growth in Italy

Using several data sources, we assess the impact of Italy’s outward foreign direct investment (FDI) on local employment growth between 1996 and 2001 for 12 manufacturing industries and 103 administrative provinces. Our main result is that, controlling for the local industrial structure and area fixed effects, FDI is associated with faster local employment growth, relatively to the national industry average. We also find that employment in small plants is not negatively influenced by higher levels of FDI. Our findings do not support therefore the idea that FDI is detrimental to local employment growth in the home country. JEL no.  C21, F21, F23     

外商直接投资与江苏省农产品出口实证研究

近年来,江苏省农产品出口一直保持稳定增长。2012年江苏省农产品出口额达到30.6亿美元。外商直接投资对江苏省农产品出口的促进作用明显,利用农业FDI促进江苏省农产品出口。     

Taxes and the Financial Structure of German Inward FDI

The paper analyses the financial structure of German inward FDI. Intra-company loans granted by the parent should be all the more strongly preferred over equity the lower the tax rate of the parent and the higher the tax rate of the German affiliate. We find that the corporate tax rate of the foreign parent has no significant impact on the financial structure of a German subsidiary. However, among subsidiaries that are directly held by a foreign investor those firms that on average are profitable react more strongly to changes in the German corporate tax rate than this is the case for less profitable firms. This gives support to the frequent concern that high German taxes are partly responsible for the high levels of intra-company loans. Taxation, however, does not fully explain the high levels of intra-company borrowing. Roughly 60 per cent of the cross-border intra-company loans turn out to be held by firms that are running losses. JEL no. F23, H25     

FDI and wage spillovers in Indonesian manufacturing

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment in Indonesian manufacturing on wages in locally owned Indonesian manufacturing plants. The issue is examined in a cross section of Indonesian manufacturing industries and provinces in one of the few years for which data on worker characteristics were available. Wages in locally owned plants were high in industries and industries within provinces with large foreign presence. Since the foreign plants also pay higher wages than locally owned ones, the two factors together imply that higher foreign presence raises the general wage level in a province and industry. JEL no. F2, J3 This paper was prepared as part of an ICSEAD project on “Foreign Multinational Corporations and Host-Country Labor Markets in Asia”. Earlier versions appeared as ICSEAD Working Paper 2001–02 and NBER Working Paper No. 8299.     

FDI驱动上海市城市化的影响因素分析

FDI通过一定机制加速工业化和城市化进程,带动一个国家或地区城市化跨越式发展。本文基于上海市城市发展现状,从FDI对经济发展、产业结构变化、人口流动和技术水平四个因素的影响,探究了FDI对上海城市化发展的作用机制,并提出上海利用FDI加快城市化进程的借鉴意义。     

Japanese FDI into U.S. service industries: Exchange rate changes and services tradability

Using the implications of the model of investment under uncertainty, this paper provides a systematic examination of the FDI–exchange rate relationship with respect to services taking into account the degree of tradability across services. Services have mainly been addressed in the literature as a sensitivity test by industry using aggregated service data identified as “nonmanufacturing”. Using data on Japanese FDI into 207 U.S. service industries, maximium-likehood estimates reveal that dollar appreciations are positively correlated with service FDI flows into the U.S. This positive correlation is stronger for non-tradable services versus tradable services. For tradable and non-tradable producer services, higher exchange rate uncertainty may lead to fewer FDI occurrences. On average, across all types of services, higher U.S. unit labor costs relative to Japan had a deterrent effect on Japanese service FDI as well. Finally, this paper also provides a useful benchmark to partition services by tradability.     

外商投资的制度效应与外资战略调整

对外开放30年来,我国吸收外商直接投资额持续增加,尤其近15年一直高居发展中国家首位。外商投资发挥了巨大的制度效应,推动经济体制转轨和市场经济发展,带动经济成长,创造大量就业机会,形成了以开放促改革和发展的中国道路。如今,我国对外开放进入全面转型期,外商投资增长伴生的矛盾日益复杂,助长贸易失衡、流动性过剩,内外资企业竞争加剧、摩擦增加。展望未来,调整外资政策,在扩大开放中提高外商投资水平,将成为我国的必然选择。     

Exports versus FDI: An Empirical Test

In a recent paper Helpman, Melitz and Yeaple argue firm heterogeneity leads to self-selection in the structure of international commerce. Only the most productive firms find it profitable to meet the higher costs associated with FDI; the next set of firms finds it profitable to serve foreign markets through exporting; while the least productive firms serve only the domestic market. The paper tests this assumption using the concept of stochastic dominance. Robust support is found for the model, the productivity distribution of multinational firms is found to dominate that of export firms, which in turn dominates that of non-exporters. JEL no. D24, F14, F23     

Investigation of the “China effect” on crowding out of Japanese FDI: An industry-level analysis (1990–2004)

This paper applies a dynamic panel model to investigate whether China is crowding out Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) from other economies of Asia. We examined this with industry-level data on Japanese FDI flows into Asian economies. In order to deal with possible problems of serial correlation and endogeneity, we estimated coefficients using a difference and system generalized method of moments to examine the “China effect” on industries. We found a significantly high degree of crowding out effect by China on its Asian counterparts. Among twelve industries, a crowding out effect was found in nine industries, including electrical &; electronics—the biggest industry for Japanese FDI. However, a complementary effect was found in two industries, one of them being transport, which is the second biggest industry for Japanese FDI. We conclude that while China's rise is a prominent threat for the region, it could be transformed into an opportunity in vertically fragmented industries.     

新疆外贸对环境影响的实证分析

本文从环境污染和环境资源两方面对目前新疆外贸对环境的影响状况进行了实证分析。结果表明,新疆外贸对环境污染产生了不利的影响,但却缓解了对环境资源的影响。     

外商直接投资对中国企业创新的外溢效应研究：基于垂直联系的视角

利用世界银行对中国的企业调研数据,本文从垂直联系视角考察了FDI对中国企业创新的外溢效应。分析的结果表明,垂直联系有利于企业创新与技术溢出。并且,与水平溢出相比,垂直联系渠道发生的溢出更为显著。对垂直联系影响因素的分析表明,拥有外方合作伙伴、位于工业园或出口加工区、加入商业协会、企业拥有较高的国内市场份额、国内市场进口产品份额较高、受国外教育经理的人数比例越高,这些因素均有利于企业垂直联系的建立。然而,企业的出口倾向对前后向联系的作用相反。     

Political regime and FDI from advanced to emerging countries

We investigate the effect of the political regime on bilateral FDI flows from advanced to emerging countries in the period 1992–2004. We control for country size, per capita income and privatization proceeds in the host country, and use a random-effect Tobit model to exploit information from zero entries. Our results suggest that democracy does have a positive effect on the amount and probability of FDI flows from developed to emerging countries. Moreover, we find that the effect of democracy on FDI also works through the total factor productivity channel, not only the political risk one as suggested in the literature.

Bureaucratic integration and regional specialization in China

Fiscal decentralization introduced as part of China's economic reform since 1979 has unleashed strong incentives for China's local governments to pursue economic development, but the same incentives have also led to local protectionist policies inhibiting the process of regional specialization. This paper focuses on the constraints or freedom with which local governments can implement their protectionist policies. Using a panel data of 29 China's regions over the time period of 1985–1997, we find that China's political system of bureaucratic integration (specifically, concurrent appointment of local government officials in the central government) imposes constraints on the local governments from practicing protectionism. We also find that the effectiveness of local protectionist policies is limited by market competition, specifically, competition from foreign-invested firms operating in China and foreign imports. Our results on the role of local protectionism remain robust to controls for the regional variations in the size of the economy and the stage of economic development.     

The Role of the Efficiency Gap for Spillovers from FDI: Evidence from the UK Electronics and Engineering Sectors

This paper focuses on the role of the efficiency gap in determining whether or not domestic firms benefit from productivity spillovers from FDI. We use establishment level data for the period 1980–1992 for the UK. Given that there is substantial heterogeneity of productivity across sectors we focus on two manufacturing sectors in detail, namely, electronics and engineering. We allow for different effects of FDI on establishments located at different quantiles of the productivity distribution by using conditional quantile regression. Overall, while there is some heterogeneity in results across sectors and quantiles, our findings clearly suggest that the efficiency gap matters for productivity spillover benefits. We find evidence for a u-shaped relationship between productivity growth and FDI interacted with the efficiency gap. We also analyse in some detail the impact of changes in relative efficiency on establishments’ ability to benefit from spillovers.