Tax incentives and foreign direct investment in China

The preferential tax policies for foreign direct investment (FDI) in China were terminated by a tax reform in 2008. This article uses the provincial-level panel data for 1998?2008 before the reform in order to study whether the tax incentive had been a significant determinant of foreign investment decisions. We find that market size and geographic location had significant impacts on the FDI inflow into China but the tax incentive policies were not a sufficient determinant of FDI inflow into China over the periods studied, which provides a rationale for the termination of the tax incentives in FDI at 2008 reform in China.     

How does foreign direct investment affect economic growth in China?

How does inward foreign direct investment (FDI) affect a transitional economy? This study attempts to analyze the role of FDI in China’s income growth and market‐oriented transition. We first identify possible channels through which FDI may have positive or negative effects on the Chinese economy. Using a growth model and cross‐section and panel data for the period 1984‐98, we provide an empirical assessment, which suggests that FDI seems to help China’s transition and promote income growth, and that this positive growth effect seems to rise over time and to be stronger in the coastal than the inland regions. JEL classification: F21, F23, O53.     

The impact of foreign direct investment on the relative return to skill

Since the early 1980s, China has adopted favourable economic policies to attract FDI in order to facilitate technology development. Since inward FDI induces either sector‐ or factor‐biased technical progress, the impact of FDI on the distribution of income between skilled and unskilled labour is not trivial. This paper introduces vertical product differentiation to analyze the impact of FDI on the return to skill and concludes that, for a labour abundant country, this impact depends on whether the FDI‐induced technology transfer is skill‐ or labour‐biased, regardless of which sector receives FDI. The analysis shows that FDI with relatively labour‐biased technology will decrease the wage gap while FDI with relatively skill‐biased technology will increase the profit margin of the host country’s exports as well as its wage gap. The findings provide policy insights for FDI recipient countries in balancing wage growth between skilled and unskilled workers by managing inward FDI with relatively labour‐biased and skill‐biased technologies. This is particularly important for China given the expected further increase of inward FDI following its imminent membership of the WTO. JEL classification: F23, J31, P33.     

Wages and wage growth in Poland: The role of foreign direct investment

In recent years Poland has received substantial inflows of foreign direct investment. This paper combines detailed labour market data with industry data from the Polish manufacturing sector to examine the effects of foreign direct investment inflows on wages and wage growth. The empirical evidence we assemble suggests that workers in industries with greater foreign presence enjoy higher wages and higher wage growth. This effect appears to be robust to a variety of empirical approaches, estimation techniques and specification checks.
JEL classification: F23, J31, 019, P33.     

The mediating role of export-oriented Japanese foreign direct investment in China

Since the early 1990s, China has become the largest destination of Japanese foreign direct investment （FDI）. Observing this trend, the authors analyzed whether Japanese FDI did promote exports from China to the rest of the world, and more importantly, whether this is a strategy adopted by Japanese multinationals to penetrate not only the Chinese market but also the global market. This analysis takes into account not only the direct effects of FDI on exports, but also the indirect effects, by examining the mediating role of export oriented Japanese FDI in China from 1998 to 2007 through panel analysis. The study contributes to the conceptual framework of indirect relationship among the macroeconomic variables, FDI and exports provides some insights into the strategy of export oriented Japanese FDI in creating a win-win platform for Japan and China.     

Research Note: The slow growth of foreign direct investment in the Soviet Union successor states

This note reviews the statistical evidence on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the countries of the former Soviet Union taking into account data from both host countries and countries of origin. The main characteristics of this FDI and its variation among the successor states of the Soviet Union are established. The contribution of FDI to economic transition is so far limited to some sectors and regions, and unlikely to accelerate in the near future.
JEL classification: F21, F23, P31.     

Rights,governance, and foreign direct investment: an industry-level assessment

Theories of multinational enterprises emphasize that foreign direct investment (FDI) is undertaken in different industries for different reasons, yet studies of the effects of rights and governance on FDI generally rely on aggregate-level FDI data. This paper evaluates US FDI outflows to 15 industries (eight manufacturing, seven non-manufacturing) in 54 countries in a linear dynamic panel data gravity FDI model using a ‘system’ generalized method of moments estimator and several widely used rights and governance indexes. At the aggregate level, we estimate that stronger rights and governance have a positive effect on FDI, consistent with most prior studies. At the industry level, we estimate larger positive effects of rights and governance on FDI for service than manufacturing industries, particularly for the information and the finance and insurance industries.     

R&D and foreign direct investment with asymmetric spillovers

This paper analyzes how firms’ R&D investment decisions are affected by asymmetries in knowledge transmission, considering different sources of asymmetry such as unequal know-how management capabilities and spillovers localization within an international oligopoly. We show that a better ability to manage knowledge flows incentivizes the firm to invest more in R&D. By introducing geographically bounded spillovers, we also find that one-way foreign direct investment (FDI) stimulates the multinational enterprise to raise its own R&D and that an FDI equilibrium is more likely to occur. Finally, spillovers localization leading to two-way FDI is welfare improving when compared with non-localized spillovers.     

浅析国际直接投资自由化进程中的中国外资政策

随着全球经济一体化的演进，国际直接投资日趋自由化流动。国际直接投资自由化的兴起在全球经济的增长和国际分工深化的进程中发挥了越来越重要的作用。我国是利用国际直接投资的大国，目前正处于向市场经济转轨的关键时期，经济体制和市场结构还不完善，如何在确保国家经济安全的前提下，推进国际直接投资自由化进程，积极合理地扩大引资规模，应成为人们关注的焦点问题。因此，本文试图探寻国际直接投资自由化的经济机理，总结出国际投资自由化的有效制度安排对现行制度进行调整，以期更好地把握和指导我国改革开放实践及进一步融入国际直接投资自由化进程。     

Outward foreign direct investment and domestic innovation performance: evidence from China

The existing literature has explored the existence of reverse technology spillover through outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), which means domestic firms improve their technological innovation and productivity due to overseas investment activities. This paper aims to examine how the host country affects reverse technology spillover from OFDI. The findings show domestic innovation performance (DIP) is positively related to OFDI in developed countries while it is negatively related to OFDI in transitional and emerging markets. It is also found that financial development and human capital weaken the positive relationship between OFDI in developed countries and DIP and also weaken the negative relationship between OFDI in transitional and emerging markets and DIP. These results are further confirmed through robustness checks.     

Firm heterogeneity in modelling foreign direct investment location decisions

This article investigates the probability of the FDI location decisions of multinational enterprises using a mixed logit panel data model, which is the most flexible discrete choice model. We employ a three-level data set, which includes over 1100 FDI location decisions into 13 alternative Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) over an 11-year period. Our empirical results on the effect of host country, industry and firm characteristics on the probability of undertaking FDI in a particular location are significant and consistent with the predictions of our theoretical model.     

The impact of foreign direct investment on horizontal export diversification: empirical evidence

Using data on stocks of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from 131 countries spanning the years 1984 to 2004 and the number of products exported by each country, we examine the effect of FDI on horizontal export diversification. To quantify the effects, we utilize parametric (quantile) and semi-parametric econometric methods. Results from both approaches indicate that, in general, an increase in the stock of FDI enhances the horizontal diversification of exports. The actual magnitude of the effect however, varies greatly across countries depending on the existing stock of FDI and stage of diversification, giving rise to an almost inverted U-shaped relationship. A further look at our results provides useful insights on the circumstances under which FDI may aid or inhibit the horizontal expansion of exports.     

Regional analysis of the impact of inward foreign direct investment on economic growth in the Chinese electronic industry

This article empirically investigates the impact of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on regional economic growth in the Chinese electronic industry (CEI). Utilizing a provincial-level panel data spanning the period 1989 to 2009, we specify and estimate an endogenous economic growth model for the CEI. Empirical results indicate that, for the coastal region, FDI inflows have been growth enhancing, while in the central and western regions the impact of FDI on economic growth is mixed, depending on the channel of capital flow. Results also indicate that exports, human capital, science and technology investment and fixed asset investment are growth enhancing, while unemployment and foreign R&D investment are growth impeding in the CEI.     

Externalities from foreign direct investment in the Mexican retailing sector

This contribution to the discussion on the impact of foreigndirect investment in developing countries is based on an empiricalstudy of the consequences of transnational corporations' presencein the Mexican retailing sector, particularly Wal-Mart. First,it is shown that the arrival of foreign firms accelerates themodernisation but has a negative impact on local firms' performanceas well as local worker remuneration as a result of the growingcompetitive pressure in the sector. Second, the changes thatoccurred in supply chain governance and the tremendous increaseof imports initiated by Wal-Mart are described, and some probableimplications for local suppliers are suggested.     

Chinese foreign direct investment in Australia: policy issues for the resource sector 1

The past 18 months have seen Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Australian resource sector become an issue of policy interest. There are two big questions that the prospects of a significant rise in FDI from China into the Australian resources sector have raised. Is the surge of FDI into Australian mining and energy consistent with achieving the traditional gains from foreign investment? And are there any particular problems associated with investment from foreign state-owned enterprises or state-managed sovereign wealth funds? These are among the questions addressed in this paper. The paper argues that there are no issues that cannot be dealt with under the umbrella of the established test of ‘national interest’ in managing the growth of Chinese FDI into the Australian minerals sector. It argues that a confusion has been introduced into policy over the questions of state ownership and supplier–buyer relations in respect of Chinese investments and that clarifying these issues is likely to be important to Australia's capturing the full benefits from the growth of Chinese resources demand and longer term economic and strategic interests in China.     

Autocracy,Democracy, and FDI Inflows to the Developing Countries

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between political regimes and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to the developing countries for a sample of 134 countries over the 1983–2002 period. Using two categorical measures of regime type and three different measures of FDI, this study finds that, regardless of the measures of regime type, democracies are not significantly associated with either FDI in level or FDI as a ratio to GDP; democracy is positively related to a higher level of per capita FDI, but this result is not robust to alternative measures of political regime. Taken as a whole, there is no evidence of a systematic relationship between democracy and FDI inflows. This result suggests that being a democracy does not help attract higher levels of FDI.     

The impact of electricity prices on foreign direct investment: evidence from the European Union

We examine the impact of electricity price variation on net FDI (%GDP) inflows in countries of the European Union. We use panel data of 27 EU countries for a period of 2003 – 2013. We show that electricity prices of south-western and north-eastern EU countries did not converge to one price until now. Dynamic panel data analysis using system GMM shows that besides unit labour costs, tax rates and competitive disadvantage in secondary education, also higher electricity prices reduce countries’ ability to attract FDI. The immediate effects are statistically significant across both sub-regions analysed: in the short run, a 10% increase in electricity prices leads to a decrease in net FDI inflows as a share of GDP by 0.4 percentage points for the south-western and 0.33 for the north-eastern region. In the long run, the response is 0.60 percentage points for south-western and 0.48 for north-eastern regions. Policies should aim at reducing electricity market price differences on the European level through investment in transborder transmission capacity; reductions in FDI, when environmental policy increases after-tax electricity prices, should be countered by other tax reductions as well as harmonization of property rights, absence of corruption and labour market regulations at best-practice level.     

Foreign direct investment in economic transition: the changing pattern of investments

Foreign direct investment into transition economies is reviewed in detail, both from aggregate data and from a survey of senior managers in 117 western manufacturing companies. It is found that host country transition progress, political stability and perceived risk influence FDI inflows as well as the predominant type of investment.     

Foreign direct investment and productivity spillovers: a quantile analysis

This paper estimates the within-plant and spillover productivity effects of foreigninvestment in Mexican manufacturing plants. It contributes to the existing literature by analyzing whether FDI of North American origin differs from FDI from the rest of the world. I also use quantile regression analysis to determine whether spillovers are equal for plants of different productivity levels. The results indicate positive and significant spillovers from the presence of foreign firms. However, these spillovers accrue only to plants at the upper end of the productivity distribution. Furthermore, North American based FDI appears to yield slightly larger spillovers relative to FDI from the rest of the world; however the difference is not statistically significant. A deeper look at this issue reveals that Canadian FDI yields large productivity spillovers relative to both US and rest of the world FDI. These differences are highly statistically significant.     

The effects of foreign direct investment on domestic firms

This paper uses firm‐level panel data to investigate empirically the effects of foreign direct investment on the productivity performance of domestic firms in three emerging economies of Central and Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Romania and Poland. To this end, a unique firm‐level panel dataset is used with detailed information on foreign ownership at the firm level. Two main questions are addressed in the present paper: (1) do foreign firms perform better than their domestic counterparts? (2) do foreign firms generate spillovers to domestic firms? The estimation technique in this paper takes potential endogeneity of ownership, spillovers and other factors into account by estimating a fixed effects model using instrumental variables in the general methods of moment technique for panel data. Only in Poland, do foreign firms perform better than firms without foreign participation. Moreover, for all three countries studied here, I find no evidence of positive spillovers to domestic firms, on average. In contrast, on average, there are negative spillovers to domestic firms in Bulgaria and Romania, while there are no spillovers to domestic firms in Poland. This suggests a negative competition effect that dominates a positive technology effect. JEL classification: D24, F14, O52, P31.