Taxes and the Financial Structure of German Inward FDI

The paper analyses the financial structure of German inward FDI. Intra-company loans granted by the parent should be all the more strongly preferred over equity the lower the tax rate of the parent and the higher the tax rate of the German affiliate. We find that the corporate tax rate of the foreign parent has no significant impact on the financial structure of a German subsidiary. However, among subsidiaries that are directly held by a foreign investor those firms that on average are profitable react more strongly to changes in the German corporate tax rate than this is the case for less profitable firms. This gives support to the frequent concern that high German taxes are partly responsible for the high levels of intra-company loans. Taxation, however, does not fully explain the high levels of intra-company borrowing. Roughly 60 per cent of the cross-border intra-company loans turn out to be held by firms that are running losses. JEL no. F23, H25     

FDI and wage spillovers in Indonesian manufacturing

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment in Indonesian manufacturing on wages in locally owned Indonesian manufacturing plants. The issue is examined in a cross section of Indonesian manufacturing industries and provinces in one of the few years for which data on worker characteristics were available. Wages in locally owned plants were high in industries and industries within provinces with large foreign presence. Since the foreign plants also pay higher wages than locally owned ones, the two factors together imply that higher foreign presence raises the general wage level in a province and industry. JEL no. F2, J3 This paper was prepared as part of an ICSEAD project on “Foreign Multinational Corporations and Host-Country Labor Markets in Asia”. Earlier versions appeared as ICSEAD Working Paper 2001–02 and NBER Working Paper No. 8299.     

我国沿海开放城市利用外资业绩与潜力比较研究

文章采用联合国贸发会议提出的“业绩指数”和“潜力指数”评估方法,对我国15个沿海开放城市利用外商直接投资业绩与潜力,分1995—1997年和2005～2007年两个时段进行定量分析。通过指数大小的排序,反映近年来这15个城市利用外资业绩与潜力的相对地位以及我国在这10多年的利用外资高峰期里,15个城市利用外资相对地位的变化,以期对各城市利用外资状况有一个客观的评价和把握,为各城市制定更有效地吸引及利用外资的政策措施提供决策依据。     

Outward FDI and Local Employment Growth in Italy

Using several data sources, we assess the impact of Italy’s outward foreign direct investment (FDI) on local employment growth between 1996 and 2001 for 12 manufacturing industries and 103 administrative provinces. Our main result is that, controlling for the local industrial structure and area fixed effects, FDI is associated with faster local employment growth, relatively to the national industry average. We also find that employment in small plants is not negatively influenced by higher levels of FDI. Our findings do not support therefore the idea that FDI is detrimental to local employment growth in the home country. JEL no.  C21, F21, F23     

What’s trade got to do with it? Relative demand for skills within Swedish manufacturing

What’s Trade Got to Do with It? Relative Demand for Skills within Swedish Manufacturing. — This paper seeks to identify the contribution of trade and technological change to the increase in inequality between skilled and unskilled workers in Sweden since the 1970s. An empirical approach is adopted which allows for the outsourcing of the low-skill parts of the production chain to low-wage locations and is applied to detailed industry and bilateral trade data, the latter distinguishing between low-wage sources of imports and OECD countries. The paper finds that, in contrast to previous studies, trade with low-wage countries may have contributed to the rise in inequality in Swedish manufacturing. The empirical results also suggest that the increased use of technology also played a role in creating greater inequality between skilled and unskilled workers in Sweden, with the magnitude of this impact increasing in the 1990s.     

近年来外商对华直接投资的新动向及启示

本文从近年来在华外商直接投资的方式、产业和区位变动的现状出发，发现在华直接投资在这几个方面的新特征、新趋势，以此为背景结合我国经济发展的新形势给出对我国的几点启示。     

Labor productivity, wages, nationality, and foreign ownership shares in Thai manufacturing, 1996–2000

This paper compares labor productivity and wages among nationality and ownership groups of foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) and local plants in Thai manufacturing for 1996, 1998, and 2000. Disaggregating foreign MNCs by nationality or foreign ownership share revealed a few significant differences in both labor productivity and wages that were not present in more aggregate specifications. In these cases, there was a weak tendency for MNCs from Europe, Japan, and the United States to have relatively high labor productivity and wages, for wholly-foreign MNCs to have relatively high labor productivity, and for majority- and wholly-foreign MNCs to pay relatively high wages. However, these results suggest that the relationships among labor productivity or wages, on the one hand, and nationality or foreign ownership shares, on the other hand, were generally weak in Thai manufacturing. These results are also consistent with those of previous studies in suggesting that the relationship between labor productivity and foreign ownership in general was also rather weak, though the relationship between wages and foreign ownership was somewhat stronger.     

Trade, foreign firms and economic policy in Indonesian and Thai manufacturing

This paper first examines the rapid growth and changing composition of manufactured exports in Indonesia and Thailand, highlighting the rapid growth of office and computer machinery and electric machinery, somewhat slower growth of non-electric and transportation machinery, as well as the low growth of previously large exports of textiles apparel. Second, the important contributions of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) to export growth in the machinery industries, particularly in electric, office, and computing machinery, are documented. Third, the paper describes trade policies in all these industries in some detail, emphasizing how low protection was a key facilitator of rapid export growth in the MNEs that dominated the electric, office, and computing machinery industry, while high protection reduced incentives to export among MNEs in the transportation machinery industry.     

Estimating the export and import demand for manufactured goods: The role of FDI

In this paper we estimate the demand for exports and imports of manufactured goods for a panel containing the majority of the EU countries as well as the United States and Japan. The model includes as explanatory factors both the traditional determinants of trade and also the stock of foreign direct investment (FDI). We apply panel unit root and cointegration tests allowing for heterogeneity. Whereas there is no evidence of cointegration when using just the traditional formulation, the results are favorable to the existence of long-run relationships linking the variables of the augmented model. Moreover, the results point mainly to a complementary relationship between trade and FDI.     

Estimating the export and import demand for manufactured goods: The role of FDI

In this paper we estimate the demand for exports and imports of manufactured goods for a panel containing the majority of the EU countries as well as the United States and Japan. The model includes as explanatory factors both the traditional determinants of trade and also the stock of foreign direct investment (FDI). We apply panel unit root and cointegration tests allowing for heterogeneity. Whereas there is no evidence of cointegration when using just the traditional formulation, the results are favorable to the existence of long-run relationships linking the variables of the augmented model. Moreover, the results point mainly to a complementary relationship between trade and FDI.     

The Role of the Efficiency Gap for Spillovers from FDI: Evidence from the UK Electronics and Engineering Sectors

This paper focuses on the role of the efficiency gap in determining whether or not domestic firms benefit from productivity spillovers from FDI. We use establishment level data for the period 1980–1992 for the UK. Given that there is substantial heterogeneity of productivity across sectors we focus on two manufacturing sectors in detail, namely, electronics and engineering. We allow for different effects of FDI on establishments located at different quantiles of the productivity distribution by using conditional quantile regression. Overall, while there is some heterogeneity in results across sectors and quantiles, our findings clearly suggest that the efficiency gap matters for productivity spillover benefits. We find evidence for a u-shaped relationship between productivity growth and FDI interacted with the efficiency gap. We also analyse in some detail the impact of changes in relative efficiency on establishments’ ability to benefit from spillovers.     

The Strategy of foreign-invested manufacturing enterprises in China: Export-orientated and market-orientated FDI revisited

This paper examines export-orientated and market-orientated foreign direct investment (FDI) in China's manufacturing industry. Based on Fung's () survey estimation of China's market-orientated FDI in 1992 and China's Third National Industrial Census in 1995, we quantify the proportion of market-orientated FDI in China 1992–2002. By combining and verifying various data sources, our estimation shows that market-orientated FDI accounts for the majority of China's total inward FDI in manufacturing industry and has grown faster than export-orientated FDI over the period 1992–2002. Our industry level analysis suggests that Overseas Chinese investors are more export-orientated than Western investors. The study suggests that many inward investors follow a dual market strategy. The coexistence of export-orientated and Chinese domestic market-orientated FDI is a reflection of the flexibility of MNEs to adjust and adapt ownership attributes to the local market context. The study offers insights into the evolutionary development path taken by foreign-invested manufacturing enterprises in China.     

FDI facilitated by agglomeration economies: evidence from manufacturing and services joint ventures in China

The open door policy of China’s economic reform since the 1980s has attracted heavy foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into China and especially to Guangdong (particularly the Pearl River Delta region, PRD) and induced significant economic growth during the past two decades. While there exist various classical theories of FDI in attempting to identify the determinants of FDI inflow and to explain the behavior of FDI flows, limited attention has been given from the perspective of agglomeration effects generated by a core-periphery (CP) relation.This paper intends to study the impacts of agglomerations on FDI inflows in the context of Krugman’s CP relation (1991) by investigating (1) the formation of a CP relation via gravity model analysis; (2) whether different types of industry FDI flows will respond differently in the CP-system, given agglomeration effects; and (3) whether FDI origin and firm scale matter in affecting FDI flows.A database consisting of a population frame of 37,742 firm-level manufacturing and services joint ventures investing in Guangdong in 1998 was used. Empirical results show that the agglomerations of the CP relation have affected FDI flow patterns. While both manufacturing and services FDI and sources of investment responded differently to the impacts, smaller firms were found more responsive to the CP-agglomeration settings regardless of FDI by industry type and by source. The significance and implications of the CP-system to further facilitate FDI in the region are discussed.     

Privatization,Foreign Acquisition and the Motives for FDI in Eastern Europe

The paper examines the motives for FDI in Eastern Europe by analysing foreign entry by acquisition facilitated by privatization programmes. Firm-level characteristics encouraging entry through their effect on expected profits, as well as industry level determinants are considered. The data are drawn from the list of the 500 largest companies in Polish manufacturing and span privatizations between 1993 and 1998. The results point to market-seeking rather than resource-seeking motives behind the location decisions of foreign investors. JEL no.  F23, L33, P31     

论科学发展观与河南省产业结构优化升级的路径选择

推进产业结构优化升级是贯彻落实科学发展观的根本要求。从河南产业结构的状况看,存在着诸如三次产业及三次产业内部结构不协调,产业结构与就业结构发展不平衡,产业素质较低等问题,与科学发展观的要求还有一定的差距,因此要以科学发展观为指导,从解放思想、提升自主创新能力、坚持走新型工业化道路、协调三次产业发展等方面推进河南产业结构优化升级。     

中印吸引外国直接投资 (FDI) 税收政策的比较

本文从税收政策角度考察了中印两国在吸引FDI方面的类似与不同,指出,中国除实行内外资企业所得税法的统一,还应在双重征税免除协定的签订以及产业、技术和地区引导等方面加强努力,以提供一个公平的税收环境。     

Financial innovation and the long-run demand for money in the United Kingdom and in West-Germany

Financial Innovation and the Long-Run Demand for Money in the United Kingdom and in West Germany. — This paper uses a cointegration model to compare the long-run demand for broad money in the UK and (West) Germany during the period 1963Q1–1990Q2. In the long-run demand function for Germany, real M3 is determined in classical manner by real income and a single opportunity cost variable. By contrast, the UK demand function requires in addition an explicit own rate on money as well as a risk variable. The income elasticity is also very high. These differences reflect the more rapid pace of financial innovation in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s.