FDI and Outsourcing in a Service Industry: Welfare Effects of Liberalising Trade and Investment

This study examines a foreign firm's entry decision and its effects on the host country's welfare in a model with a composite good in which both commodity and service generate utility for consumers. Along with the commodity it produces, a producer can provide the service by itself or outsource the service. The result shows that the incentive for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the service sector increases under liberalising trade in the final‐good market. Moreover, there exist policy combinations of trade and investment liberalisation, whereby the domestic firms' profitability is traded off with the host country's social welfare when the foreign firm provides a service through FDI or through outsourcing, respectively. Finally, the welfare after simultaneously liberalising trade and investment is not necessarily greater than that under autarky.     

On the Equivalence of Tariffs and Quotas under a Revenue Constraint

This paper sets out a duopolistic model to examine the price and welfare equivalence of tariffs and quotas, given the quota rent is equal to the tariff revenue. It shows that the domestic welfare ranking of the two trade policies crucially depends on the relative costs of the domestic and foreign firms; when the domestic firm's relative costs are lower than those of the foreign firm, a quota regime generally leads to a higher welfare level than that of an equivalent tariff regime. This finding contrasts sharply with the conclusions of Dasgupta and Stiglitz (1977 ), where it was found that a tariff regime always generates higher domestic welfare.     

Trade Liberalization in the Presence of Foreign Direct Investment and Tax Credits: Estimates for Costa Rica

The paper uses a calibrated general-equilibrium model to quantify the welfare impact of trade liberalization—and compute the optimal tariff structure—for Costa Rica when trade-policy-induced foreign direct investment and international capital taxation with credits are present. It shows that complete trade liberalization reduces Costa Rica's welfare, as it leads to an outflow of capital and loss of tax revenue which more than offset the efficiency gains from an enhanced resource allocation. The optimal tariff structure for the Costa Rican economy turns out to be a mixture of relatively small import tariffs and subsidies.     

Monetary policy and noise traders: A welfare analysis

This paper studies the choice of monetary policy regime in a small open economy with noise traders in forex markets. We focus on two simple rules: fixed exchange rates and inflation targeting. We contrast the above two rules against optimal policy with commitment under productivity shocks. In general, the presence of noise traders increases the desirability of a fixed exchange rate regime. We also evaluate the welfare impact of Tobin taxes in this milieu. These taxes help unambiguously in the absence of productivity shocks; their welfare impact under productivity shocks depends on the monetary regime in place and trade elasticity between domestic and foreign goods.     

HOW DOES GLOBALIZATION AFFECT INDUSTRIAL COMPETITIVENESS?

Industrial competitiveness (IC), reflecting a country's ability to produce and export manufactures competitively, is closely associated with economic growth. How does globalization affect IC? While the topic is of great importance, empirical studies on the issue in the literature have been limited. This article attempts to close the gap by estimating the role of foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade with cross‐country data in 1985 and 1998. Taking advantage of a recently constructed IC index, we estimate several regression models of effects of FDI and trade on industrial performance. Results suggest that FDI and trade have a positive impact on IC, and increasing integration with the world economy through FDI and trade contributes to better industrial performance. (JEL F02, F10, F21, L60)     

Foreign Investment and the Mediation of Trade Flows

How does foreign direct investment affect the trade between nations? While many theories of the multinational firm are based on the premise that foreign production and trade are substitutes, most empirical studies of foreign investment and trade uncover a complementary relationship. This paper shows that the mismatch between theoretical work and empirical findings is a byproduct of data aggregation. When the unique country–industry patterns of mostly OECD country foreign investments in the US are analyzed, predicted substitution patterns are revealed at the data level that roughly corresponds to broad products. The complementary effects of foreign investment on trade emerge at higher levels of aggregation.     

Foreign (in)direct investment and corporate taxation

Abstract Foreign investments of multinational firms are often complex in that they involve conduit entities. In particular, a multinational can pursue either a direct or an indirect investment strategy, where the latter involves an intermediate corporate entity and is associated with enhanced opportunities for international tax planning. As a consequence, in the case of indirect investments, the role of corporate taxation in destination countries may change. This paper investigates the effects of corporate taxation on foreign investment decisions of German multinationals, taking explicitly into account that firms choose in a first stage the investment regime (direct vs. indirect). The empirical findings, consistent with theoretical predictions, suggest that tax effects differ according to whether the investment is direct or indirect.     

Banking as a basis for economic cooperation in less developed Europe

This article examines to what extent Russia's increasing reliance on foreign capital could potentially kick-start the economy and generate growth. The analysis highlights more fundamental issues of governance and institutional arrangements, for which the focus on foreign economic activities serves merely as an example to reflect on pathologies of the Russian economy as a whole. The article consists of a theoretical framework, discussing the change of institutional arrangements in the first section and analysing crucial issues of corporate governance and property rights in the last, while empirical information is compiled for Russia as a whole and its constituent regions in the second and third core sections. The article concludes that the Russian map of high foreign trade activities will be shaped only by patchy growth spots, located either where the domestic market is largest or opportunities for export exist, mainly in large urban agglomerations (economies of scale) and commercial hubs, resource-rich and gateway territories (gravitation to international trading blocs). Major investment disincentives will remain as long as the existing system of taxation has not been substantially changed, property rights are not protected, land and bankruptcy legislation is not properly enforced and local authorities are not prevented form rent-seeking activities.     

Export,FDI and the welfare gains from trade liberalization

This paper extends Melitz and Redding (2015) to analyze the welfare gains from trade liberalization by adding foreign direct investment(FDI). Our model predicts that with FDI activities, welfare gains from trade liberalization will be strictly lower than those in a model without FDI, but only takes exports into account. In addition, the calibrated model indicates that with FDI activities, aggregate welfare reaches its maximum when the fixed export costs are positive rather than 0. Furthermore, we decompose the welfare gains induced by trade liberalization from continuing exporters, and switchers. The results show that in any case, with or without FDI, continuing exporters contribute a larger share to welfare gains than status switching firms.     

Foreign Investment and National Interests in the Russian Oil and Gas Industry

This article examines the political economy of foreign direct investment in the Russian oil and gas industry in order to explain the limited role of foreign capital in this sector. There are three forms of foreign direct investment in the Russian oil and gas industry: (1) joint ventures, (2) investment within the framework of a production sharing agreement (PSA) and (3) foreign equity investment. The development of these three forms of foreign direct investment is analysed with special reference to the interests of the parties involved, before a conclusion on the political factors determining the conditions for foreign investment is made.     

World Interest Shocks, Capital, and the Current Account

Macroeconomic performance in many developing countries is influenced by international credit conditions. This paper considers a developing economy that faces an upward-sloping supply function of debt. It analyzes how a particular foreign shock, a world interest shock, influences such key macroeconomic variables as output, investment, the current account, and the terms of trade in both short-run and steady-state equilibrium. An intertemporal optimizing model is used to study these issues. This approach permits characterization of the intertemporal adjustment of the indebted economy, and shows that a world interest shock lowers overall economic welfare.     

Impact of FDI and trade on environmental quality in the CAFTA-DR region

This study investigates the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), trade and industrial emissions in member countries of the Central American Free Trade Agreement–Dominican Republic (CAFTA-DR) between 1979 and 2010. Our model is based on extant literature about the Environmental Kuznets’ Curve framework. In this study, we consider sulphur dioxide (SO₂), nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) as our dependent variables. Our key independent variables are FDI and trade. Our study finds evidence that foreign investment and trade have had a negative impact on our selected emissions. However, our models also estimate turning points which are below the current GDP per capita values for all CAFTA-DR member countries. This is an encouraging trend in terms of the potential reduction in emissions in the region.     

Quality of Imports Relative to Exports,and the Transmission of Sustained Growth through the Terms of Trade

Abstract

This paper shows that an economy can import sustained growth, in spite of not possessing mechanisms to absorb foreign knowledge. To do that, it develops a two-country model of exogenous growth with investment-specific technological change. In autarky, one country sustainably grows while the other economy remains stagnant. In the trade situation, the quality-adjusted terms of trade become increasingly favourable to the second economy, which results in the transmission of growth. The continuous improvement in the quality of imported capital goods relative to exported consumption goods is the reason why this occurs. Moreover, this mechanism leads to convergence in per capita income if trade involves incomplete specialisation.     

Privatization in a Small Open Economy with Imperfect Competition

We look at privatization in a general equilibrium model of a small, tariff‐distorted, open economy. There is a differentiated good produced by both private and public sector enterprises. A reduction in government production in order to cut losses from such production raises the returns to capital and increases the tariff revenue, which are welfare‐improving. However, privatization also leads to lower wages and possibly fewer private brands. This lowers workers’ welfare, which may make privatization politically infeasible. Privatization can improve workers’ welfare with complementary reforms, e.g., attracting foreign investment or trade liberalization.     

On the new export sector in developing countries

Abstract

Many developing countries are establishing a new export sector by accepting foreign direct investment. Developing a three-sectors three-factors general equilibrium model with tariff, this paper considers the condition under which the acceptance of direct investment is desirable for the developing countries. We show that the factor intensity rankings among the sectors play a key role on the welfare effects and that direct investment increases the output of both the new export and the traditional export sector and promotes the export-led growth in developing countries.     

Foreign Debt,Foreign Direct Investment and Volatility

We investigate how foreign debt and foreign direct investment (FDI) affect the growth and welfare of a stochastically growing small open economy. First, we find that foreign debt influences the growth of domestic wealth by lowering the cost of capital, while FDI affects the country's welfare by providing an additional source of permanent income. Second, a decline in domestic investment may improve domestic welfare as FDI replaces the gap. Even when the welfare deteriorates, its magnitude is mitigated, leaving more room for discretionary fiscal policy. Third, a fiscal policy aimed to stabilize domestic output fluctuations needs to be conducted not to crowd out the welfare benefit of FDI too much. Fourth, an economy with both types of foreign capital experiences wider welfare swings by external volatility shocks than the one with foreign debt alone, while the welfare effects from domestic volatility shocks are mitigated. The welfare effects of fiscal shocks are much smaller with both types of foreign capital. Lastly, the first-best labor income tax covers the government absorption by the labor's share of total output, and the capital income tax covers the rest. Investment is penalized or subsidized depending on the social marginal cost-gain differential.     

Profit taxation and the mode of foreign market entry

Abstract This paper studies the role of profit taxation for an international firm's decision upon how to penetrate a foreign market – through exports or through foreign direct investment (FDI) and local supply. We show that with harmonized taxes the international firm may choose FDI even though this has welfare costs from a global point of view. With tax competition, the host country can enforce exporting instead of FDI. This leads to a Nash equilibrium associated with higher world welfare than harmonized taxes. Thus, because of the effect on entry mode, tax competition provides heretofore unexplored benefits as compared to tax harmonization.     

Sector specific foreign investment,labour inflow,economies of scale and welfare

This paper argues that the impact of foreign investment on welfare depends on the sector that attracts the investment and certain characteristics of the economy. It is shown that, as long as the intermediate good is non-traded, foreign investment in a sector that is subject to economies of scale increases welfare by increasing the size of the intermediate good sector. On the other hand, foreign investment in a sector that is subject to constant returns to scale decreases welfare by decreasing the size of the intermediate good sector. The impact of foreign investment (in either sector) on welfare depends on relative factor intensities when the intermediate good is traded.     

Foreign Direct Investment in Australia Following the Australia–US Free Trade Agreement

A model of inward foreign direct investment for Australia is estimated. Foreign direct investment is found to be positively related to economic and productivity growth and negatively related to foreign portfolio investment, trade openness, the exchange rate and the foreign real interest rate. Foreign direct investment is found to be a substitute for both portfolio investment and trade in goods and services. The exchange rate and the US bond rate affect foreign direct investment through the relative attractiveness of domestic assets. Actual foreign direct investment outperforms a model‐derived forecast in recent years, consistent with the liberalisation of foreign investment screening rules following the Australia–US Free Trade Agreement.     

Country of Origin Labeling (C.O.O.L.): How cool is it?

This paper develops a partial-equilibrium model of a small open-economy trading an unsafe product. The model is used to analyze the welfare effects of trade with and without a country-of-origin labeling (COOL) program. The welfare gains from trade in the absence of COOL are ambiguous, may justify the imposition of a trade ban. Even if a full ban does not improve welfare and some restriction of trade is always welfare-enhancing. Under a tariff regime, more COOL trade is better than less trade. Independently of domestic market power, free trade coupled with a COOL program maximizes national welfare.