The effectiveness of international knowledge spillover channels

Using panel data from 16 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries for the period 1981–2000, we examine the significance of international knowledge spillovers through inward and outward foreign direct investment (FDI), intermediate goods imports, and a disembodied direct channel. Knowledge spillovers through the disembodied direct channel are approximated by using a measure of technological proximity and patent citations between countries. Using estimation models that reflect recent developments in non-stationary panel data econometrics, we show that international knowledge spillovers through inward FDI and the disembodied direct channel are significant and robust. In contrast, outward FDI and imports of intermediate goods are not conducive to international knowledge spillovers.     

FDI和进口贸易对中国的技术溢出效应——基于西方大国与亚洲四小龙的比较

一国(地区)的技术进步不仅取决于本国(地区)的研发资本存量,而且取决于引入的外国(地区)研发资本存量的溢出效应.本文采用扩展的CH模型,将研发资本存量作为解释变量,选取1993年至2006年的面板数据,研究西方大国(G8成员国)和亚洲四小龙通过进口贸易、FDI两个途径对中国的技术溢出效用.研究结论有三:一是FDI的技术溢出效用显著为正;二是西方大国FDI的溢出效应略高于亚洲四小龙;三是我国自己的研发资本存量只是在没有西方大国影响的情况下与全要素生产率存在显著的正相关关系.     

The impact of foreign direct investment on productivity: New evidence for developing countries

We provide new empirical evidence on the relationship between inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and total factor productivity (TFP) growth using cross-country data for 51 developing countries over the period 1984–2010. Our results suggest a weak direct effect of FDI on TFP growth but, after accounting for the roles of human capital and institutions as contingencies in the FDI-TFP growth relationship, we find a robust FDI-induced productivity growth response dependent on these ‘absorptive capacities’. However, the relevance of the human capital contingency effect diminishes when the effect of institutions is also considered, which suggests that improving institutions is relatively more important than human capital development for developing countries to realise productivity gains from FDI.     

The influence of international trade on labour productivity in services: The case of Brazil in the 1990s

In the developing world, services account for a rising share of domestic employment and international trade. Thus, it is important to know whether trade liberalization contributes to labour productivity in services. We explore this question, examining the 1990–2000 Brazilian trade liberalization. We find that growth of imports and exports strengthened labour productivity in services, but the contribution was smaller in subsectors with more college graduates, and this negative offset was larger in subsectors that received large foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. Improved access to imported manufactured intermediate inputs raised downstream services' labour productivity and downstream manufacturing firms benefitting from tariff cuts enacted by trade partners generated spillovers that improved the labour productivity of upstream service subsectors. However, FDI inflows and investments in human and physical capital modified these downstream factors. We conclude that the Brazilian trade liberalization strengthened productivity in services, but unequally across subsectors.     

Competition policy in open economies

Abstract

This paper examines aspects of R&;D spillovers across countries, in particular, the role of international trade and human capital as the catalysts for international diffusion of technology. We present a new way of measuring foreign R&;D stocks embodied in foreign intermediate goods and capital equipment, which we argue is free from the criticism of previous measures. With the pooled panel data spanning 1970 through 1995 for 103 countries, we find that the effects of foreign R&;D on total factor productivity growth of both industrial countries and developing countries are substantial and that human capital is the most influential channel for absorbing foreign R&;D spillovers.     

Technology spillover effects within Spanish communities

The article uses panel data for the period 1990–2010 to estimate technology spillover effects on 17 Spanish communities. Accounting for nonstationarity and cointegration, we use the dynamic OLS estimator to estimate the impact of domestic and non-domestic R&;D capital stock on labour productivity of Spanish communities, taking into account trade-, migration- and foreign direct investment (FDI)-related technology diffusion channels. We find significant trade-related spillover effects within Spanish communities and from EU countries. On average, an increase in the non-domestic R&;D stock of 1% increases their labour productivity between 0.02% and 0.12% if related to bilateral trade pattern. Moreover, migration within Spanish communities has a negative impact ranging between ?0.07% and ?0.16% on labour productivity as the impact of inward migration is dominated by outward migration. There is no robust impact from FDI inflows of OECD countries in general or EU countries in particular. Finally, the domestic R&;D stock, physical capital and human capital are shown to be significant drivers for labour productivity in Spain no matter if non-domestic (local or foreign) spillover effects are trade-, migration- or FDI-related.     

International technology diffusion and economic growth: Explaining the spillover benefits to developing countries

Technology spillovers offer great opportunities for economic growth to developing countries that do little, if any, R&D activity. This paper explores the extent to which these countries benefit from foreign technology, the diffusion mechanisms involved, and the factors that shape their absorption capabilities. Results based on a non-stationary panel of 55 developing countries indicate that the benefits are quite substantial: a ten-percent increase in foreign R&D stock is translated into more than a two-percent increase in aggregate productivity. Of the diffusion channels considered, imports appear to be more conducive to R&D spillover. In addition, developing countries that enjoy larger benefits tend to exhibit larger stock of human capital, more openness to trade and foreign activities, and stronger institutions. These North–South R&D spillovers, although larger than previously suggested, appear less strong than North–North spillovers, adding to the general literature on economic divergence between developed and developing countries.     

Technology transfers,foreign investment and productivity spillovers

This paper explores the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and the productivity of host country domestic firms. We rely on a specially designed survey of over 4000 manufacturing firms in Vietnam, and separate out productivity gains along the supply chain (obtained through direct transfers of knowledge/technology between linked firms) from productivity effects through indirect FDI spillovers. In addition to identifying indirect vertical productivity spillovers from FDI, our results show that there are productivity gains associated with direct linkages between foreign-owned and domestic firms along the supply chain not captured by commonly used measures of spillovers. This includes evidence of productivity gains through forward linkages for domestic firms which receive inputs from foreign-owned firms.     

Industry Mix and Curvilinear Spillovers from FDI in China

This paper uses industry and province specific Chinese industrial data to demonstrate a potential causal link between two strands of the FDI literature. The first strand suggests that the impact of spillovers from inward FDI is less robust in middle-income economies than in either high-income or low-income economies. The second strand suggests diminishing returns of inward FDI on horizontal labor productivity in low-technology industries but not in high-technology industries. This paper suggests a link between these two phenomena. Specifically, if both FDI intensity and industry mix vary with the level of economic development, then an industry-dependent relationship between inward FDI and horizontal spillovers could cause middle-income economies to derive fewer benefits from inward FDI than either high- or low-income economies. This paper also verifies the curvilinear relationship between FDI in low-technology industries and horizontal labor productivity without relying on problematic FDI from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao.     

Do R&D activities matter for productivity? A regional spatial approach assessing the role of human and social capital

We estimate the long-run effects of Research and Development (R&D) activities on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) across the Spanish regions during 1980–2007. We use panel data cointegration methods and control for spatial externalities linked to human and social capital. Our empirical results, robust to different specifications and additional control variables, show a significant direct effect of public R&D capital on productivity. No significant results are observed for private R&D capital. In contrast, the effect of patents is highly significant but proves to be small. Furthermore, Spain has greatly benefited from importing technology from leading countries. Spatial spillovers are crucial in explaining long-run productivity for the case of Spain. Human and social capital exert direct positive impacts, however, their effects are geographically bounded and negative spatial spillovers offset direct outcomes. Overall TFP increases when neighbouring territories engage in R&D activities.     

Does method selection matter? A new look at FDI and human capital in Chinese high-tech industries

Using the data that comes from China Statistical Yearbook on High Technology Industry, this paper examines the human capital accumulation, the R&D expenditure and the FDI externality effects on the productivity improvement of Chinese high-tech industries. Our empirical results suggest that the effects of FDI and human capital accumulation on technological progress depend in part on the adopted approaches. We believe that the dynamic model dominates the static model estimates. This paper finds little evidence in support of technological spillovers from FDI and indicate that the technological progresses are mainly rooting in human capital accumulation other than technology spillover induced by FDI in Chinese high-tech industry.     

Exporting, linkages and productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment

Abstract.  In this paper we analyse productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment using firm-level panel data for U.K. manufacturing industries from 1992 to 1999. We investigate spillovers through horizontal, backward, and forward linkages; distinguish spillovers from export-oriented vs domestic-market-oriented FDI; and allow for differing effects, depending on domestic firms' export activities. The results suggest that the mechanisms through which spillovers affect domestic firms are very complex and that there are substantial differences in spillover benefits for domestic exporters and non-exporters, and from different types of inward investment.     

Knowledge spillovers,absorptive capacity and total factor productivity in China’s manufacturing firms

Applying the stochastic frontier framework, this study explores the diffusion and absorption of technological knowledge in China’s manufacturing firms, based on a panel of more than 10,000 local and foreign-invested firms over the period 1998–2001. Our empirical approach allows us to distinguish between technological progress (TP) and technical efficiency (TE) in analysing whether R&D, exports and the presence of foreign direct investment simultaneously enhance TP through knowledge spillovers in a single framework and whether different types of domestic absorptive capacity moderate external knowledge spillovers in relation to TE. The results show that there are positive inter-industry productivity spillovers from R&D and foreign presence, whereas evidence of intra-industry productivity spillovers from FDI to Chinese firms is less robust. We find evidence that absorptive capacity is one of the key determinants to quantitatively explain intra-industry differences in productivity of local Chinese firms. The findings have important policy implications.     

Foreign direct investment and technology spillovers: Evidence from panel data analysis of manufacturing firms in Zambia

The most pronounced reason for providing fiscal incentives to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) is that FDI is an effective conduit for technology transfer through technology spillovers to domestically owned firms in the host country. This study analyzes the nature and significance of productivity externalities of FDI to local firms, both in terms of intra-industry and inter-industry spillovers, using firm-level data from Zambia. The results show little evidence in support of intra-industry productivity spillovers from FDI on one hand, and significant inter-industry knowledge spillovers occurring through linkages. The net impact of FDI depends on the interaction between intra-industry and inter-industry productivity effects.     

How does FDI affect domestic firms’ wages? theory and evidence from Vietnam

This paper explores the role of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) as a determinant of domestic firms’ wages, namely wage spillovers. We first construct a theoretical model to demonstrate that the presence of FDI firms affects domestic firms’ expected average wages via productivity spillovers and a cut-off capability. We then estimate FDI-induced wage spillovers by employing IV-GMM estimator with a five-year panel dataset of a growing service industry in Vietnam. Despite FDI firms on average pay 2.25 times that of domestic firms, they put a downward pressure on domestic firms’ wages. A one percent increase in FDI presence causes domestic firms to cut average wages by 2.03 percent. The estimations also find that firm-specific features are attributable to significant differences in their wages as well as FDI-linked wage spillovers.     

国际直接投资与开放型内生经济增长

本文应用内生经济增长理论框架 ,着重就国际直接投资 (FDI)对高收入国家、中收入国家和低收入国家三种不同类型国家经济增长的影响进行理论和实证分析 ,认为FDI能内生技术溢出和技术进步 ,从而成为内生经济增长的重要源泉。本文对 65个样本国家的实证研究结果表明 ,FDI流入增长对高收入的发达国家经济增长作用比对中低收入发展中国家作用更明显。但FDI流入增长对我国经济增长和全要素生产率增长具有明显促进作用 ,其原因与FDI流入规模和我国的人力资本水平有关     

International R&D Spillovers: Trade,FDI, and Information Technology as Spillover Channels*

With the rapid pace of economic integration, the productivity of a country depends not only on domestic R&D, but also on foreign R&D through technology diffusion across countries. The advancement of information technology (IT) has made the international transmission of knowledge faster and more efficient, providing an important channel for international R&D spillovers. This paper investigates three channels of international R&D spillovers: trade, FDI, and information technology. Applying panel cointegration and dynamic OLS analysis to the data for 21 OECD countries plus Israel during the period from 1981 to 1998, we find that bilateral trade remains an important conduit for international R&D spillovers. Although bilateral FDI is found to be positively related to international R&D spillovers, their impact on productivity growth is relatively small. We also find that the development of information technology has played a more important role in international R&D spillovers and productivity growth in recent years.     

中国制造业外资生产率溢出的条件性研究

FDI生产率溢出存在与否的问题实际上是东道国企业有无条件吸收溢出的问题，本研究从行业内溢出和地区行业间溢出两个方面进行溢出条件性考察。通过对1998-2003年中国制造业分地区四位码行业水平上的面板数据分析后发现，生产率溢出更多地从本地区其他行业的外资参与中获得，行业内的溢出相对并不显著，两类溢出由于机理不同，影响条件有一定差异，对于地区行业间溢出，吸收空间是最大的影响因素。另外，吸收能力、内外资合作程度和适度竞争都是溢出发生的重要条件。     

适宜技术、人力资本与区域知识溢出——基于1995—2009年中国省际面板数据的实证分析

采用1995—2009年中国28个省(自治区、直辖市)的面板数据,运用基于数据包络分析的Malmquist生产率指数法,实证检验了适宜技术、人力资本对地区知识溢出和TFP的影响。研究结果表明:人力资本、省际R&D资本溢出和国际R&D资本溢出都是影响地区TFP的重要因素;人力资本除了可直接影响地区TFP外,还可通过对来自省际、国际进出口、FDI和ODI渠道的知识溢出发挥"同化器"作用来间接影响的地区TFP;人力资本对知识溢出具有"同化器"作用,但在不同的适宜技术下人力资本的影响机制和作用路径不同。