Testing for horizontal and vertical foreign investment spillovers in China, 1998–2007

As with many developing countries, the Chinese government hopes that knowledge brought by multinationals will spill over to domestic industries and increase their productivity. In this paper, we show that foreign investment originating outside of Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan has positive effects on individual firm level productivity, while foreign investment from HKMT firms does not. We also test for both horizontal (within the same industry) and vertical (upstream or downstream) linkages from foreign investment. Using a manufacturing firm-level panel for 1998 through 2007, we find zero or weak positive horizontal externalities. However, our results show that foreign direct investment (FDI) has generated positive productivity spillovers to domestic firms via backward linkages (the contacts between foreign affiliates and their local suppliers in downstream sectors) as well as forward linkages (between foreign suppliers and their local buyers in the upstream sectors).     

Foreign Ownership and Firm Innovation: Evidence from Korea

ABSTRACT

This study examines whether foreign equity investment promotes domestic firms’ innovation activities. Using panel data on the Korean firms during the 1999–2013 period, we find that foreign ownership has a positive effect on firms’ innovation activities. Furthermore, we also show that, as compared to non-chaebol firms, chaebol firms’ innovation activity becomes much greater with the increase of foreign ownership. Finally, we investigate industry-level spillover effects of innovation. Specifically, we find that foreign ownership promotes innovation activities via forward linkage, the effect of which is also more pronounced in chaebol firms.     

Microeconomic mechanisms behind export spillovers from FDI: evidence from Bulgaria

This paper studies how the presence of multinational enterprises affects the export performance of Bulgarian manufacturing firms—export spillovers from FDI. Using export data at the firm/product/destination level for the period 2004–2006, it finds positive forward spillover on export value and quantity, related to quality upgrading. Conversely, it finds negative (or insignificant) backward and horizontal spillover on export flows, related to quality downgrading. When aggregating data at the firm level and considering that a firm can operate in several sectors, the paper shows that the presence of foreign input suppliers allows domestic firms to export additional varieties of lower quality and upgrade the average quality of existing varieties, whereas the presence of foreign customers generates the opposite effect.     

Imported Capital Goods and Manufacturing Productivity: Evidence from Botswana's Manufacturing Sector

This article examines the effects of imported capital goods on manufacturing productivity growth in Botswana. Despite consistent efforts aimed at diversification, Botswana's economy has remained heavily dependent on diamond exports, and the country's productivity remains a point of concern. The ability to apply foreign technologies to increase productivity and spur diversification is limited by the foreign exchange gap. This study uses an imported input growth model to analyse how the importation of capital goods contributes to enabling productivity growth and export diversification. With a panel of 340 manufacturing firms, the study also analyses the effects of imported capital goods on firm productivity growth and skills development. The results show that imported machines and equipment have increase manufacturing productivity after 1‐2 years following the investment. Additionally, foreign‐owned firms were found to enjoy more productivity growth than their domestic counterparts.     

Foreign Investment and the Global Geography of Production: Why the Mexican Consumer Electronics Industry Failed

Explanations of industrial development in late-developing countries have become narrowly focused on the capability of governments to promote, pressure, or punish nationally-owned firms. Often overlooked is the contribution of firms, both national and multinational, in propelling, coordinating, and determining the path and location of such development. This paper examines the conditions that led to the decline of Mexico's consumer electronics industry and presents new evidence to support a more complex account of the role of both industrial and state actors within this process.In contrast to the traditional market- or state-based theories, we argue that the decline of Mexico's consumer electronics industry largely resulted from its foreign investment regime, particularly the timing of investment and the geographical locations of local and foreign manufacturers, and the subsequent depth and quality of the relationships between these firms. The differences between Mexico's regime and that of Taiwan during the same period provide further evidence of the important role that foreign firms play in inserting local suppliers into the global production chain. We argue that Mexico's foreign investment regime and the resulting weak local-foreign ties, rather than inadequate state policy, sealed the fate of Mexico's once thriving domestic electronics industry.     

Financial constraints and foreign direct investment: firm-level evidence

Low productivity is an important barrier to the cross-border expansion of firms. But firms may also need external finance to shoulder the costs of entering foreign markets. We develop a model of multinational firms facing real and financial barriers to foreign direct investment (FDI), and we analyze their impact on the FDI decision. Theoretically, we show that financial constraints can affect highly productive firms more than firms with low productivity because the former are more likely to expand abroad. We provide empirical evidence based on a detailed dataset of German domestic and multinational firms which contains information on parent-level financial constraints as well as on the location the foreign affiliates. We find that financial factors constrain firms’ foreign investment decisions, an effect felt in particular by firms most likely to consider investing abroad. The locational information in our dataset allows exploiting cross-country differences in contract enforcement. Consistent with theory, we find that poor contract enforcement in the host country has a negative impact on FDI decisions.     

Multinational firms, market integration, and trade structure: What remains of the standard-goods hypothesis?

Multinational Firms, Market Integration, and Trade Structure: What Remains of the Standard-Goods Hypothesis? — In extending traditional empirical trade models to multinational firms, this paper shows the effect of the transfer of firm-specific technology and intangible assets by these firms on the structure of host countries. For Belgium, a small open economy with a large presence of foreign multinationals, this effect is of crucial importance and previous studies appeared to have produced biased results by neglecting it. The econometric results show how the large multinational presence induced by the European integration has shifted Belgium’s trade structure towards differentiated products, thereby challenging the standard-goods hypothesis which states that small countries tend to specialize in nondifferentiated products. Spain and Ireland have witnessed an increase in foreign direct investment and a shift in trade structure similar to Belgium after joining the EC.     

Footloose Multinationals in Belgium?

Using firm level panel data for the years 1996–2001, covering all sectors of the economy, the impact of multinational ownership on the exit decisions of firms located in Belgium is estimated. In this analysis, I clearly distinguish for nationality of ownership, allowing for differences between firms that are foreign-owned and multinationals rooted in the domestic economy. Controlling for various firm- and industry-specific factors, it is found that while foreign multinationals are more likely to shut down operations compared to national firms in both manufacturing and service sectors, domestic multinationals only exhibit significantly higher exit rates in the manufacturing industries. The analysis has important policy implications, especially in terms of the desirability of the large impact of multinational firms on employment and output generation in Belgium. JEL no. D21, F23, L20, L25     

Impact of Outward Foreign Direct Investment on Domestic R&D Activity: Evidence from Taiwan's Multinational Enterprises in Low‐wage Countries

This paper theoretically and empirically investigates the home‐country effects of a firm's outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) activity, specifically OFDI motivated by lower labor costs in the host country. A two‐country imperfect competition model is developed, and the interaction between a firm's R&D spending and its OFDI is examined. It is found that the relationship between a firm's OFDI and its domestic R&D is indeterminate because there is a complementary effect as well as a substitution effect induced by OFDI activity. Panel data on Taiwanese manufacturing firms from 1992–2005 are applied to test the validity of the theoretical results. The propensity score matching method is used to construct a comparison group without selection bias. Our empirical evidence reveals that a Taiwanese firm's OFDI is positively related to its domestic R&D spending, particularly in R&D‐intensive industries.     

Exporting National Champions： China＇s Outward Foreign Direct Investment Finance in Comparative Perspective

We examine the extent to which Chinese development banks have financed the globalization of China＇s ＂national champion ＂firms： specifically, through outward foreign direct investment （OFDI）. We create a database of Chinese fnance for OFDI and compare our results to the existing literature and available data on Japan, Korea and other Asian nations. We estimate the total value of China＇s OFDI finance from 2002 to 2012 at US$14Obn. As a percentage of total OFDI, China＇s lending is roughly three times higher than Japan ＇s, the previous global leader in OFDl finance. We identify two major reasons for China＇s high （31 percent） ratio of OFDl lending to total OFDI. First, China has a greater incentive to give OFDI loans than Japan or Korea ever did because its borrowers are statelowned so it can more easily channel funds to targeted areas. Second, China has a greater capacity to give OFDI loans because it has significantly higher savings and foreign exchange reserves than Japan and Korea.     

Protection versus Free Trade: Lobbying Competition between Domestic and Foreign Firms

This article considers how political interaction between policymakers and domestic and foreign firms endogenously determines tariff rates. We show that because of lobbying competition between foreign and domestic firms, even a less competitive foreign firm can successfully elicit a tariff reduction under reasonable conditions. Moreover, lobbying competition may also increase the level of aggregate domestic welfare when the market powers of the competing firms are sufficiently alike.     

The geographic extent of global supply chains: evidence from Southeast Asia

We study the extent to which inter‐firm relationships are locally concentrated and what determines firm differences in geographic proximity to domestic or foreign suppliers and customers. From micro‐data on self‐reported customer and supplier data of firms in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, we measure the distances between firm pairs, that is, the distance to the main supplier and the distance to the main customer for the surveyed firms. The distances to suppliers and customers are shorter for indigenous firms in these Southeast Asian countries; but the arm's length differs across countries. The distance between firm pairs differs widely across firms within narrowly defined industries and countries. We find that both firm‐level transaction costs and capabilities affect the distances between customers and suppliers. The distance to suppliers is longer for firms that have accepted guest engineers from the main supplier to maintain production processes. Further, we find that the distances to suppliers and customers are longer for firms that have undertaken organisational change or improved marketing practices.     

Firm Efficiency in Cambodia's Garment Industry on the Eve of the Multi‐Fiber Arrangement Termination

Applying a frontier analysis to 2004 firm‐level data, the present paper investigates firm efficiency and its determinants for Cambodia's garment industry. The study finds that firm experience and remuneration are crucial for improving scale efficiency and overall technical efficiency, while effective use of capital and adequate labor‐skill development are important for enhancing a firm's technical capabilities. Foreign‐owned enterprises with a relatively larger share of foreign labor outperform local firms. However, the present study does not reveal evidence of any advantages of a cluster‐type concentration in Phnom Penh and export markets, nor of any positive impacts of product specialization. The findings imply a need to support skill development for workers and local managers at the middle management level, and to streamline foreign direct investment measures to attract greater numbers of efficient foreign enterprises, so as to promote the development of the garment industry as a whole.     

Occupational Composition Within Multinational Firms: Evidence From Korean Employer-Employee Matched Data

Using Korean employer-employee matched data, we investigate the difference in occupational structure between domestic and multinational firms in manufacturing sectors. The main result shows that the occupational composition of the multinational firms is more skewed toward high-skills and service occupations than domestic firms. Furthermore, we find the heterogeneous labour structure among multinational firms upon types and locations of foreign affiliates. The multinationals that are establishing production plants or locating their affiliates in emerging countries tend to be composed of relatively smaller share of high-skills and service occupations than those with foreign R&D centres or business branch or with affiliates located in advanced countries.     

Heterogeneity of FDI Export Spillovers and Its Policy Implications: The Experience of China

This paper explores the magnitude and heterogeneity of foreign direct investment (FDI) export spillovers in China. Using a Heckman sample selection model estimated over a rich firm‐level dataset in China's manufacturing sector from 2000 to 2003, we find that FDI exerts significant impacts on the exporting behavior of domestic firms, and such impacts are heterogeneous in that some firms receive positive impacts while others receive negative impacts. The heterogeneity of FDI spillovers has significant policy implications as it indicates that government policies need to be more specific and targeted in order for the benefits of FDI to be reaped.     

FDI AND DOMESTIC INVESTMENT IN TAIWAN: AN ENDOGENOUS SWITCHING MODEL

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of the FDI decision on domestic investment in the case of Taiwanese manufacturing firms. In addition, we also consider the deferral effect of the FDI decision and the role of firm size. To this end, this paper takes advantage of an endogenous switching model from which consistent estimators are obtained after correcting for the self‐selection problem. The empirical results show that the effect of these manufacturing firms’ FDI decisions on domestic investment is significant within the firms. Furthermore, a crowding‐out effect of FDI on domestic investment is found when Taiwanese firms engage in defensive FDI. Finally, FDI is found to have a positive influence on the domestic investment of the larger firms, while the influence is negative in the case of the smaller firms.     

Vertical Spillover Effects of Multinationals on Chinese Domestic Firms via Supplier-Customer Relationships

Foreign direct investment （FDI） can benefit domestic firms in the host country. Using firm- level data for China, we find statistically positive vertical spillover effects of multinational enterprises on the performance of domestic firms through backward and forward supplier- customer relationships. The spillover effects are mainly from large multinational enterprises and are greater for state-owned firms and in poor regions. Our results are robust for both parametric regression and nonparametric matching techniques. Our findings have strong policy implications： while regulations relating to building business relationships with domestic firms when seeking foreign direct investment should be established, such policies should be aimed at private firms, big multinationals and less developed regions.     

Does Foreign Direct Investment Affect the Growth of Local Firms？ The Case of China＇s Electrical and Electronics Industry

Does foreign direct investment(FDI) into developing countries affect the growth of local firms in host countries? Using a dataset of 38 sectors in China’s electrical and electronics industry,in this paper,we analyze whether FDI has a positive effect on local firms,with technology spillovers,added value and increasing total factor productivity,or a negative, market stealing,effect.Estimating the relationship between growth of local firms and investment of foreign firms,our results show that FDI is likely to have a negative impact on the growth of local firms in sectors with large disparities in technology and less experience in business.Therefore,local firms lacking in technology need to find markets with no competition from foreign firms or determine strategies to compensate technology disparities.     

跨国公司对东道国企业技术创新的影响

在下游企业顺序进入市场条件下,本文分析了跨国公司对于上游企业创新动机的影响。我们的研究表明:上游企业的创新投入既取决于其国有股的比重又取决于下游企业的国别属性以及市场势力。具体而言,如果上游企业是一个私营企业,那么下游企业的国别属性不影响其研发投入。相反,倘若上游企业是一个纯粹的国有企业,那么只有当下游企业均为国外企业时,其研发投入不足,在其他情况下,上游企业的研发投入相同。假如上游企业是一个部分国有企业,那么下游跨国公司的市场势力越大,其研发动力越低。     

An empirical analysis of contracting by Chinese firms

Why do firms use formal contracts or relational contracts with their business partners? The paper uses survey data based on a large number of Chinese firms to uncover some important factors for why and when formal contracts or relational contracts are used. This study identifies geographical location as an important factor in affecting Chinese firms' contracting decisions. We find that a firm is more likely to use formal contracts with its clients and suppliers if they are located in a city different from the firm's main business location. We also find that larger (smaller) firms tend to adopt formal (relational) contracts. However, while the number of clients has a negative impact on a firm's adoption of formal contracts with its clients, the number of suppliers has a positive impact on its adoption of formal contracts with the suppliers.