Financial constraints and foreign direct investment: firm-level evidence

Low productivity is an important barrier to the cross-border expansion of firms. But firms may also need external finance to shoulder the costs of entering foreign markets. We develop a model of multinational firms facing real and financial barriers to foreign direct investment (FDI), and we analyze their impact on the FDI decision. Theoretically, we show that financial constraints can affect highly productive firms more than firms with low productivity because the former are more likely to expand abroad. We provide empirical evidence based on a detailed dataset of German domestic and multinational firms which contains information on parent-level financial constraints as well as on the location the foreign affiliates. We find that financial factors constrain firms’ foreign investment decisions, an effect felt in particular by firms most likely to consider investing abroad. The locational information in our dataset allows exploiting cross-country differences in contract enforcement. Consistent with theory, we find that poor contract enforcement in the host country has a negative impact on FDI decisions.     

Production versus distribution-oriented FDI

The business literature has long recognized the importance of multinationals’ distribution networks. The empirical analysis of distribution-oriented FDI has, however, received little attention which is at least partly due to the lack of appropriate data. We present a slightly modified version of Helpman et al. (Am Econ Rev 94(1):300–316, 2004) that explicitly models the possibility for a multinational firm to export through its wholesale trade affiliate. We analyze the multinational firms’ choice between foreign production and foreign distribution. Our empirical analysis uses different discrete choice models and alternative specifications for several sub-samples of multinational firms. Our results show that the choice between distribution and production-oriented FDI is based on the trade-off between fixed and variable costs.     

Sorting It Out: Technical Barriers to Trade and Industry Productivity

Trade economists traditionally study the effect of lower variable trade costs. While increasingly important politically, technical barriers to trade (TBTs) have received less attention. Viewing TBTs as fixed regulatory costs related to the entry into export markets, we use a model with heterogeneous firms, trade in differentiated goods, and variable external economies of scale to sort out the rich interactions between TBT reform, input diversity, firm-level productivity, and aggregate productivity. We calibrate the model for 14 industries in order to clarify the theoretical ambiguities. Overall, our results tend to suggest beneficial effects of TBT reform but also reveal interesting sectoral variation.     

Heterogeneity and the FDI versus export decision of Japanese manufacturers

We investigate whether productivity differences explain why some manufacturers sell only to the domestic market while others serve foreign markets through exports and/or FDI. When overseas production offers no cost advantages, our model predicts that investors should be more productive than exporters. An extension allowing for low-cost foreign production can reverse this prediction. Data for 1070 large Japanese firms reveal that firms that invest abroad and export are more productive than firms that just export. Among overseas investors, more productive firms span a wider range of host-country income levels. J. Japanese Int. Economies 17 (4) (2003) 448–467.     

Technological Capability and FDI in Asia: Firm‐level Relationships among Japanese Manufacturers*

The present paper reexamines the relationship between technological capabilities and FDI decisions at the firm level. The data cover 118 300 Japanese firms in all manufacturing industries. The R&D of Japanese firms has a noticeably weaker relationship with FDI in Asia than with FDI in industrial countries. This finding is confirmed to be robust even when alternative estimation techniques are used and when R&D expenditure data are replaced by patent data. The estimation results also reveal non‐negligible fixed entry costs for FDI, a finding consistent with the observation that only approximately 2 percent of the firms invest abroad.     

Investments in response to trade policy: The case of Japanese firms during voluntary export restraints

This paper develops a dynamic structural model of a single decision in order to analyze the effect of voluntary export restraints (VERs) on quality-upgrade and foreign direct investment (FDI) behavior. I estimate the model parameters using a variant of the two-step estimator developed by Bajari et al. (2007). Using panel data of Japanese firms in the U.S. automobile industry, both activities are found to have significant sunk cost, which introduces intertemporal interactions in decisions, and I also find that the entry costs for FDI are larger than fixed adjustment costs for quality-upgrade. I simulate counterfactuals based on the estimation of the structural model. In the absence of the VERs, both quality-upgrade and the probability of undertaking FDI decrease. The second simulation examines the substitution effect between the two investment activities. The proposal to restrict FDI policy causes a dramatic increase in the level of quality-upgrade. Similarly, the proposal to restrict quality-upgrade policy results in an increase in the probability of FDI.     

Do domestic and foreign exporters differ in learning by exporting? Evidence from China

In view of the importance of intra-firm trade and export-platform FDI conducted by multinationals, we investigate how domestic firms and foreign affiliates exhibited differential impacts of export entry and exit on productivity changes. Using a comprehensive dataset from China's manufacturing industries, we employ the Olley–Pakes method to estimate firm-level TFP and the matching techniques to isolate the impacts of export participation on firm productivity. Robust evidence is obtained that domestic firms displayed significant productivity gains (losses) upon export entry (exit), whereas foreign affiliates showed no evident TFP changes. Moreover, the productivity gains for domestic export starters were more pronounced in high- and medium-technology industries than in low-technology ones. We explain our findings from the perspective of the technology gap theory after considering processing trade and the fragmentation of production stages in the era of globalization.     

Trade Policy,Competition and Productivity: The Impact of EU Harmonization in the Dutch Food Processing Industry

Evidence broadly confirms that European Union (EU) harmonization of food regulations can be considered as a trade-promoting and market-integrating instrument in the Single Market. However, little is known on how this particular trade liberalization measure may impact total factor productivity (TFP). One of the general presumptions is that trade liberalization has a positive impact on productivity through the effect of competitive pressures to which domestic firms are exposed. For instance, as a result of lowering or removing regulatory barriers to trade, a decline in entry costs of foreign and domestic competitors leads to more competitive pressures which have a downward effect on prices and markups and higher TFP through a better reallocation of inputs. The overall evidence shown in this paper leads to the conclusion that the impact of EU harmonization on various TFP measures occurs through a markup mechanism: more EU harmonization results in more competition (lower markups) and greater TFP growth. We also investigate the impact of assumptions relating to market structure and the production function. We empirical test and refute the assumptions of perfect competition and constant returns to scale in our sample. The analysis is carried out at the level of Dutch food processing firms for the 1979–2005 period. We extend and built upon a new database on EU harmonization of regulations in the food industry. The product classification of this database follows the detailed Combined Nomenclature classification that codes the relevant harmonization initiatives of technical regulations at the product level.     

A general equilibrium analysis of FDI growth in Chinese services sectors

This paper analyzes one of the features of the Chinese economic transition, namely, the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) accruing to advanced services sectors. To that aim we use an innovative computable general equilibrium (CGE) model that includes, in a multi-regional setting, foreign multinationals operating in monopolistic competition. The model is based on data that split the world economy in 2016 into 11 regions (China - US - EU27 - Great Britain -other advanced economies - India - Japan - South East Asia - Latin America - Middle East - Sub Saharan Africa) and 21 sectors. We provide quantitative evidence on several characteristics of the 21 sectors in China, EU27 and the US, as well as other data on the role of China in the global stage, including its evolution since 2004. Several scenarios focusing on the increase of FDI inflows in services, because of the reduction of its FDI barriers, are simulated deriving short and long run results. We find that the impact of more foreign multinationals in services is positive for China but smaller than the one that had been obtained in other previous studies on FDI in manufactures. This is due to the still limited role of services in the Chinese economy and to a crowding out effect that domestic firms experience after the entry of foreign multinationals. On the whole the impact is, however, slightly positive for China, because manufactures benefit from the entry of foreign services multinationals. The rest of regions are unaffected or benefit very slightly, due to the fact that services production is less export oriented and more devoted to private consumption than in the case of manufactures. However, their manufacturing sectors are slightly harmed by the stronger Chinese competition. Many of them manage to more than offset this latter trend through higher exports or FDI in services directed to China.     

International relocation,difference in production costs,and welfare: An analysis based on a two-country model

This paper examines whether or not the globalization of Japanese companies is a problem for the Japanese economy. To examine this, using the theoretical model, the paper examines whether the globalization of home-located tradable goods firms provides a benefit to the home country from the perspective of welfare. Specifically, since globalization is thought to have begun based on the difference in production costs of the home and the foreign country, we examine how an increase of productivity in the foreign non-tradable goods sector, which is the principal factor in the difference in production costs between the two countries, affects the welfare of the home country. We show that such an increase of productivity not only induces enterprise relocation, but also improves the welfare of the home country. In particular, the latter is demonstrated by an increase in the real flow of dividends that results from holding equities in tradable goods firms located abroad, i.e., the improvement in the income account. Hence, since the prediction of the model indicates that the globalization of firms is not a problem, it can be said that the globalization of Japanese firms is not a problem for the Japanese economy.     

Firm Productivity and Mode of Foreign Expansion: Evidence from Taiwanese Manufacturing Firms

This paper builds on the recent literature on firm heterogeneity in international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI), and aims to empirically examine how firm productivity affects a firm’s foreign market entry strategy beyond the simple binary choice between exporting and FDI. Utilizing the panel data of Taiwanese manufacturing firms during 2002–2012, we further classify FDI methods by whole ownership or a joint venture to investigate a firm’s foreign expansion decision. By performing Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) tests, we find that if a firm is more productive, it is more likely to choose FDI rather than exporting. However, productivity of firms choosing whole ownership is not so different from choosing a joint venture. Furthermore, a more productive firm is more likely to conduct both whole ownership of the foreign subsidiary and a joint venture formation in the case of FDI.     

Firm heterogeneity,foreign market entry mode and ownership choice

We study the relationship between firm productivity, foreign market entry mode and affiliate ownership choice using Kolmogorov–Smirnov stochastic dominance tests on Japanese firm-level productivity and horizontal FDI data into 20 OECD countries during the period 1985–2001. We devote particular attention to different types of joint ventures to find that affiliate ownership increases with the parent firm's TFP.     

Firm Productivity and Foreign Direct Investment into Non‐core Activities*

As foreign direct investment (FDI) often originates from multinational enterprises (MNEs) with non‐core activities and not single‐product firms, as MNE theory typically suggests, we hypothesize that such firms are more productive than MNEs without non‐core activities as well as non‐MNE firms. We test this hypothesis using Kolmogorov–Smirnov stochastic dominance Tests and Japanese firm‐level productivity and FDI data for the period 1985–2001. We find that both manufacturing and service multinational firms with non‐core foreign investments stochastically dominate firms without non‐core activities. We also find cost‐complementarities between certain core and non‐core FDI activities that span both manufacturing and service affiliates.     

The role of foreign direct investment in the host-country firm selection process: firm-level evidence from Slovenian manufacturing

This paper examines the role of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in firm selection processes in the Slovenian manufacturing sector in the 1994–2003 period. It adopts the firm dynamics framework that allows testing of selection effects directly by assessing the impact of foreign firms’ activity on the probability of exiting of local firms (crowding out). The results show that intra-industry productivity spillover effects offset only a minor part of the competition pressure which results from foreign firm entry, hence incumbent firms experience a drop in their survival probability upon a foreign firm’s entry within a particular industry. This result is driven by foreign firm entry of the greenfield type, as entry through the acquisition of existing firms has no significant effect. The strength of the crowding-out effect decreases with the incumbent firm’s export propensity. There is no significant evidence that inward FDI would stimulate the selection process through backward linkages in the upstream supplying industries, whereas foreign firms’ activity reduces the exit probability of downstream local customers (through forward linkages).     

Does Foreign Direct Investment Induce Domestic Mergers?

This paper examines the impact of foreign firm entry on the industry consolidation process in a host country that operates through mergers and exits of incumbent firms. Using a three-stage oligopolistic model, the paper shows that foreign direct investment (FDI) may trigger consolidation via a merger since the approval of a domestic merger by the antitrust authority is more likely in the case a foreign firm enters via FDI and a firm’s incentive for a domestic merger is greater and that, in turn, the possibility to merge and become more efficient modifies the outcome of the game by making FDI compared to exports less likely.     

Post-production services and optimal integration strategies for the multinational firm

This paper examines firms’ decision of integrating production and post-production services to serve foreign markets. The author builds a model in which heterogeneous firms choose different locations to produce output, while employ local or send home managers from headquarters to provide post-production services. The model shows that the equilibrium decision of a firm depends on its own productivity level and the mobility of transferring home managers across borders. Using Korean firm- and affiliate-level data, empirical results show that firms choose production locations based on their productivity levels and transport costs, while firms’ choice of service managers depend on informal trade barriers across borders. These findings are consistent with the theoretical implications.     

Explaining the size differences of exporter premia: theory and evidence

Two decades of research have established pronounced exporter productivity premia (EPP) and exporter size premia (ESP). Yet, we do not know why such exporter premia differ so widely in magnitude across countries or sectors? We take this question to the theory and to the data. We derive the sectoral EPP and ESP in a standard heterogeneous firms trade model and apply the insights from the model to guide our empirical investigation of detailed Danish firm-level data. We show that a significant share of the observed variation in EPP and ESP across sectors can be accounted for by sector differences in the underlying variation in productivity dispersion, variable trade costs, the ratio of fixed export costs to fixed costs of production, and the elasticity of demand.     

Exports and Productivity Selection Effects for Dutch Firms

The paper tests whether recent theories of international trade with heterogeneous firms can explain the export patterns in Dutch firm- and plant- level data in manufacturing and services. Recent trade models with heterogeneous firms predict that the export decision of firms is affected by sunk entry costs in foreign markets, with only the most productive firms self-selecting into exports. We test a latent variable model of the export decision by probit regressions and standard OLS panel regressions. Our results support the self-selection prediction. The process further appears to be conditioned by scale effects, market structure and multinational affiliation. Regarding alternative explanations, we do not find evidence for the learning-by-exporting hypothesis, even when controlling for the firm’s distance to the international productivity frontier.     

Effects of presidents’ characteristics on internationalization of small and medium firms in Japan

Recent heterogeneous-firm models of international trade suggest that productivity determines whether firms engage in export activity and foreign direct investment. In practice, however, many productive firms are not internationalized, whereas many unproductive firms are, which suggests that there are factors other than productivity that influence firms’ internationalization. This study uses a unique panel data set for Japanese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to examine whether the personal characteristics of a firm’s president are factors in firm internationalization. We find that SMEs with a risk-tolerant, forward-looking president are more likely to be internationalized. These effects are large in magnitude, as is the productivity effect, which provides a partial explanation as to why many productive firms are not internationalized. In addition, we find that productivity has an insignificant effect on firms exiting export markets, whereas presidential myopia increases the probability of exit. The evidence further suggests that a firm’s initial export costs become sunk following its entry into export markets, which explains why many unproductive firms are internationalized.     

Industrial groupings and strategic FDI

We show that industrial ownership structures, such as keiretsu groupings in Japan, may significantly impact firms’ incentives to engage in foreign direct investment (FDI). While the previous literature has mainly focused on the cost of capital advantages enjoyed by keiretsu firms, this paper examines two relatively unexplored channels by which ownership structure matters for FDI incentives. The first channel involves the direct incentives generated via standard product and factor market interactions whereby keiretsu firms with cross-ownership consider more directly the congestion effects of further FDI into a market. The second channel involves the indirect incentives generated by sharing of information across keiretsu firms which reduces entry costs of subsequent FDI. We find that keiretsu firms are more aggressive than non-keiretsu firms in their FDI strategies, that is, for any given parameter values they undertake FDI with a higher probability than independent firms. Furthermore, keiretsu firms adopt a more aggressive investment strategy against independent rivals than amongst themselves.