Global value chains participation and productivity gains for North African firms

The emergence of global value chains (GVCs) has provided some firms the opportunity to internationalize by specializing in the production of specific inputs or tasks along the chain, with a direct impact on a country’s competitiveness. China, for instance, managed to enter low value added phases in GVCs to rapidly become a major player in world trade. Against this background, this paper asks whether North Africa, given its favourable geographic position in the Mediterranean and proximity to Europe, can grab similar opportunities. In particular, it analyzes the GVCs participation of North African firms and its implications for productivity. Since the coordination of vertically fragmented production processes increasingly relies on an adequate level of quality and reliability, especially when the inputs from several stages and locations must come together in a specific way, we identify firms involved in GVCs as traders with internationally recognized quality certification. Using a propensity score matching diff-in-diff method, the paper finds that firms that enter GVCs both perform better ex ante and show additional productivity gains ex post. Results suggest that policies designed to support certifications and compliance with international standards and to increase trust between firms in different countries, represent an important tool for linking developing countries to global production networks, with possible positive consequences on their economic development and growth.     

Liberalisation, FDI, and productivity spillovers--an analysis of Indian manufacturing firms

The objective of the intensification of reforms in India's trade,technology and industry policies in 1991 was to make Indianindustry competitive. In the light of these attempted changes,the present paper tested two hypotheses, namely (a) whetherliberalisation has improved the productivity of local firms;and (b) whether the spillovers from technology transfer haveincreased in the liberal regime. To test these, techniques frompanel data and stochastic production frontier were employedon 487 firms belonging to 24 three-digit manufacturing industriesfor the period 1989–90 to 1996–97. The results showedthat after liberalisation, the productivity of Indian industry,especially the foreign owned firms, has improved. The econometricresults suggested that only ‘scientific’ non-FDIfirms have benefited from the liberalisation. For the ‘non-scientific’firms, the impact is found to be productivity depressing. Withrespect to spillovers, only those domestic firms, which investedin R&D to decode the spilled knowledge, could benefit.     

Heterogeneous Productivity and the Gains from Trade and FDI

Nontraded goods account for a major share of GDP in most economies, but have not been incorporated in the welfare analysis of monopolistic-competition models with heterogeneous productivity. This paper extends Helpman, Melitz and Yeaple (American Economic Review 94(1):300–316, 2004) to explore welfare effects in the presence of a nontraded good. We derive new analytical results about how the gains from trade and FDI are determined and affected by key parameters in the case of symmetric countries. The model is calibrated to a country group that includes all major developed countries. The gains from openness (trade and FDI) are found to be substantial (between 3.24 and 6.27 per cent of income) even if nontraded goods represent a major part of the economy. Most of these gains are attributed to trade rather than FDI.     

Indirect productivity effects from foreign direct investment and multinational firm heterogeneity

This paper analyzes for a panel of Romanian manufacturing firms whether the quality of foreign firms, measured by their productivity level, affects their potential as a source of indirect productivity effects on domestic firms. We find that only sufficiently productive foreign firms generate positive productivity effects on domestic supplier firms. The most productive foreign firms are the main source of productivity effects. Domestic firms with higher productivity levels also enjoy larger total positive productivity effects. When supplying foreign firms that are less productive than themselves, domestic firms experience zero to negative effects.     

Exchange rates and ownership structure of Japanese multinational firms

This paper investigates the determinants of Japanese multinationals’ ownership structures. Unlike most previous studies that neglect the impact of financial constraints on ownership, we add the exchange rate as a measure of wealth and test whether exchange rates affect the ownership share of foreign direct investment projects. After controlling for other variables that affect ownership, we find that exchange rates have a significant effect on the likelihood of wholly owned subsidiaries. We also discuss several other explanations for the link between exchange rates and foreign direct investment and provide evidence that the link stems from capital-market imperfections.     

Exchange rate volatility and first-time entry by multinational firms

The model and related empirical examination in this paper demonstrate one reason why previous studies document both positive and negative correlations between exchange rate volatility and observed levels of foreign direct investment. Using a simple model of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, it argues that the source of the volatility is important in resolving the puzzle. An empirical analysis of mergers and acquisitions by individual firms reveal that first-time foreign direct investment is discouraged by monetary volatility originating from the source-country, but can be encouraged by monetary volatility originating in the host country, especially when compared to domestic investment or expansion by existing multinationals. The regressions also reveal a large and positive “euro effect” on the number of first-time cross-border mergers within the European Monetary Union, even when controlling for domestic merger activity.     

Banking crisis and productivity of borrowing firms: Evidence from Japan

We investigate the effects of bank distress on the productivity of borrowing firms by using data on listed companies in the Japanese manufacturing industry during the 1990s. We find that deterioration in the financial health of banks, which is measured by a decline in the capital-asset ratio, decreased the productivity of their borrowers during the period of the severe financial crisis (FY1997–1998). Our finding empirically confirms the theoretical view that an increase in financial friction negatively affects the productivity of the corporate sector.     

Export behavior and productivity growth: Evidence from Italian manufacturing firms

Export Behavior and Productivity Growth: Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Firms. — This paper provides econometric evidence supporting the hypothesis that exporting implies learning effects. Learning-by-exporting is modeled as a change, induced by export behavior, in the stochastic process governing firms’ productivity. Empirically, this is implemented by specifying cross-section regressions of labor productivity growth on measures of export behavior, controlling for past productivity growth and other firms’ characteristics. Using a sample of Italian manufacturing firms, it is found that exporters do not exhibit faster productivity growth. Nevertheless, growth in value added per worker has a positive and significant relation with firms’ export intensity. In other words, only firms substantially involved in exporting have a significantly higher rate of productivity growth. This result suggests that learning-by-exporting is by no means simply the outcome of the presence in the export market.     

Chinese exports and productivity gains: panel evidence

This paper examines the impact of imports from China on the labour productivity levels of importers, using unbalanced data from 1994 to 2006. It is hypothesised that imports from China increase importer countries' labour productivity levels. Using cross‐section, fixed and random‐effect models, a statistically significant, positive relationship is found between the share of a country's imports from China and labour productivity in the manufacturing sector of that country. Moreover, it is found that imports from China have a larger impact on China's main Asian‐Pacific trade partners and countries with higher manufacturing shares in their total exports.     

Powerless: gains from trade when firm productivity is not Pareto distributed

Most trade models featuring heterogeneous firms assume a Pareto productivity distribution, on the basis that it provides a reasonable representation of the data and because of its analytical tractability. However, recent work shows that the characteristics of the productivity distribution crucially affect the estimated gains from trade. This paper thoroughly compares the gains from trade obtained under three different productivity distributions (Pareto, lognormal, and Weibull) and investigates their policy implications. We find that both the magnitude of the welfare gains and the relative importance of the fixed versus variable trade costs change significantly. Hence, relying blindly on a single distribution is dangerous when performing trade policy analysis.     

Does antidumping stimulate FDI? Evidence from Japanese firms in the UK

Does Antidumping Stimulate FDI? Evidence from Japanese Firms in the UK. — This paper explores which factors influence the number of Japanese firms in the UK and the level of employment and fixed assets in those firms, at a highly disaggregated sector level. We are interested in whether trade policy has had a role to play in the entry and expansion of Japanese firms. The results give some support to the hypothesis that antidumping action has acted as an incentive for Japanese direct investment in the UK. However, it has a relatively modest effect —antidumping cases can explain a maximum of 8 per cent of the expansion in employment by existing Japanese firms in the UK, while they appear to have no influence on the arrival of new firms.     

Knowledge spillovers from FDI in China: The role of educated labor in multinational enterprises

This paper employs a firm-level panel data set for a high-tech cluster in China to examine knowledge spillovers from multinational enterprises (MNEs) to domestic firms, focusing on the role of MNEs’ employment of educated workers. We find that knowledge of MNEs spills over to domestic firms in the same industry through MNEs’ employment of workers with graduate-level or overseas education. We also find that Japanese MNEs contribute less to knowledge spillovers than US MNEs. This is likely due to the fact that Japanese MNEs in China do not employ much educated labor.     

Inward FDI and demand for skills in manufacturing firms in Sweden

We observe a substantial increase in foreign ownership in Sweden in the 1990s. Did that have any effect on relative demand for skilled labor? Has technology transfers—often associated with inward FDI—led to an increased demand for skills due to skilled-biased technical change? Are there any grounds for the concerns in the public Swedish debate that more skilled activities have been moved to other countries where the headquarters are located? Estimating relative labor demand at the firm level and using propensity score matching with difference-in-difference estimation, we obtain support for that relative demand for skilled labor tend to rise in non-multinationals (non-MNEs)—but not in multinationals (MNEs)—that become foreign-owned. Other interesting findings are that larger presence of foreign MNEs in an industry appears to have a positive impact on the relative demand for skills in Swedish MNEs within the same industry and that the elasticity of substitution between skilled and less-skilled labor seems to be lower in MNEs than in non-MNEs.     

Freight rates and productivity gains in British tramp shipping 1869-1950

The standard source for pre-WWII global freight rate trends is the Isserliss index. We think it is time for a new look at his British tramp shipping index, especially given his sources offer vastly more information than Isserliss used. Our new estimates confirm the precipitous decline in real freight rates before World War I, but we also extend them to 1997, a long period of relative stability. In an effort to identify the contribution of transport revolutions to global commodity price convergence, we create route-specific deflators, rather than relying on the Sauerbeck index. Finally, using the price-dual and new factor price indices, we calculate total factor productivity growth for five global routes, and then identify the sources of productivity growth along them.     

Social capability deficits and productivity behaviour of African manufacturing firms: Evidence from Lesotho garment producers

Despite attempts to induce strong competitiveness in African manufacturing firms, poor productivity performances continue to hinder their ability to operate successfully in international markets. This paper argues that, while many plausible explanations can be put forward for this failing, analysis of the firms' social and institutional contexts can provide useful insights into why they have continued to perform badly. Adopting the technological catch-up framework proposed by Abramovitz (1986) Abramovitz, M. 1986. Catching up, forging ahead and falling behind. Journal of Economic History, 46(2): 385–406. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], the paper uses the case of Lesotho garment producers to illustrate how an environment characterised by significant social capability deficits has a negative impact on local firms' competitiveness. Strategic interventions to improve the quality of infrastructural services deliveries are suggested as urgently needed remedial measures.     

IT,enterprise reform,and productivity in Chinese manufacturing firms

This paper is a first attempt at examining the impact that Information Technology (IT) and enterprise reform have on the productivity of Chinese manufacturing firms by using large-scale firm level datasets from 1995 to 2002. It is found that enterprise reforms captured by the entry and exit of firms have had a positive impact on aggregated productivity growth. In addition, IT plays a relatively important role in the productivity performance of post-reform enterprises, as opposed to enterprises which are not affected by major restructuring in the course of Chinese state-owned enterprise reforms.