Skill Upgrading and Production Transfer within Swedish Multinationals

This paper studies the link between production transfer within Swedish‐headquartered multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the manufacturing industry and skill upgrading in their parent companies in the 1990s. The analysis distinguishes between horizontal and vertical foreign direct investment (FDI). The increased employment share in the affiliates in non‐OECD countries (vertical FDI) has a non‐trivial, significantly positive effect on the share of skilled labor in the Swedish parents. On the other hand, the parents’ skill upgrading is unrelated to employment changes in their affiliates in other OECD countries (horizontal FDI). This is consistent with implications of the newly developed horizontal MNE models.     

Foreign direct investment and international trade in a continuum Ricardian trade model

We develop a continuum Ricardian trade model to capture both North–South trade and technology transfer via foreign direct investment (FDI) by multinational enterprises (MNEs). We show that there is a unique range of products produced in the South by MNEs. In the case of an infinitely elastic supply of expatriates, if the ability of Southern workers in absorbing Northern technology increases, then (a) the range of MNE production increases, (b) Northern workers's welfare and Southern workers' welfare change in opposite directions, and (c) the world aggregate welfare increases under certain conditions. We explore issues such as North–South wage gaps, FDI policies and the product cycle. We also derive results under a general supply of expatriates.     

跨国公司、区域一体化与社会福利——一个垄断模型的扩展

跨国公司与区域一体化间的关系主要涉及两个核心问题:区域一体化如何影响跨国公司的直接投资行为;跨国公司的存在如何影响区域经济一体化收益。文章通过一个扩展后的垄断模型将以上两个传统上分割开来的命题统一于一个框架内进行探讨,分析显示,区域一体化对跨国公司直接投资的影响具有一定的不确定性,跨国公司的存在也使区域一体化的收益趋于模糊,国家特征和生产技术特征因素在两个互有联系的问题上均具有决定性的影响。     

Domestic Labor Markets and Foreign Direct Investment*

We study how the labor market and industry uncertainty affect the investment decisions of multinational enterprises (MNEs). In an uncertain business climate, MNEs must take account of the future in deciding where to locate a branch plant. When wages are endogenously determined, both the opportunity cost of labor and redundancy payments influence the MNE’s decision. When countries compete for foreign investment, different national characteristics determine the winners in different industries. Differences in risk may draw MNEs to different locations. Firm‐specific bargaining always offers an advantage, as the mix of current and future pay fully reflects the firm’s risk profile.     

Incentives to transfer profits: a Japanese perspective

This paper forms one of a series examining aspects of transfer pricing from a Japanese perspective. In earlier work the authors examined prevalent allegations that global companies, especially Japanese multinationals, operated transfer pricing policies to the deliberate disadvantage of host countries by artificially locating profits in jurisdictions where a tax advantage could be obtained. There would appear to be considerable evidence to suggest that obtaining a tax advantage is not the primary reason for adopting any particular transfer pricing policy. This is especially true in the case of certain Japanese companies, the transfer pricing policies of which result in effective transfers of profits back to their home base in Japan, where tax rates are relatively high. In earlier work it was initially suggested that this homeward transfer of profits was a consequence of following different costing principles and operating within a different business culture. This paper will explore further these reasons and attempt to analyse why such companies actively seek to undertake foreign direct investment, yet do not exploit transfer pricing opportunities in ways which have been open to them.     

Foreign direct investment in Russia's regions 1993-95. Why so little and where has it gone?

In this paper, foreign direct investment (FDI) into Russia's regions during the period 1993-95 is analysed using recently available regional data. Russia's regions are shown to be much richer than China's, but much poorer than US states, though with far less FDI than either country. FDI into the regions is also low compared to both Western and Eastern European countries, but has grown substantially from very low levels. Relatively higher FDI is found to occur when crime is lower, market size is bigger and risk is less. Surprisingly, the education of the workforce is found to be important only in the two major cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow, suggesting FDI into Russia's regions is not drawn by cheap labour. Unlike other countries, no evidence for either infrastructure or privatization influencing FDI could be found. The use of tax breaks and exemptions to attract FDI may be short-sighted as the consequent cut in budget revenues hampers the ability of the region to fight crime and to lower business risk, resulting in an implicit marginal tax increase for future foreign investors that exceeds any benefits from shortterm tax breaks.     

The importance of clusters for spillovers from foreign direct investment and technology sourcing

This paper examines the link between cluster development andinward foreign direct investment. The conventional policy approachhas been to assume that inward foreign direct investment (FDI)can stimulate significant clustering activity, thus generatingsignificant spillovers. This paper, however, questions thisand shows that, while clusters can generate significant productivityspillovers from FDI, this only occurs in pre-existing clusters.Further, the paper demonstrates that foreign-owned firms thatenter clusters also appropriate spillovers when domestic firmsundertake investment, raising the possibility that clustersare important locations for so called technology, or knowledgesourcing activities by MNEs.     

Location for Foreign Direct Investment in Vertically Related Markets

This paper studies a multinational enterprise's (MNE's) location decision in a vertically related market with endogenous vertical technology transfer (VTT). We show that, even though VTT is more costly in a less developed country, an MNE can transfer more technology there than in a developed country (DC). When the opposite occurs, the MNE sometimes locates in a DC where, although it faces stronger competition, it obtains the input at better terms. Therefore, by arguing that the MNE's decision can be crucially affected by the upstream market's outcomes, an alternative explanation is provided for the commonly observed foreign direct investment (FDI) in DCs.     

FDI Effects on National Competitiveness: A Cluster Approach

Despite the close relationship between the activities of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the competitiveness of host countries, few studies have linked these two subjects from a global perspective. Combining Porter’s approach and the work accomplished by international business economists provides a powerful analytical tool with which to review the recent empirical and theoretical literature on the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on national competitiveness. The contention is that FDI can indeed be a source of competitiveness but that previous studies have neglected the role of location, in particular the role of clustering on the absorptive capacity of the host State. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive conceptual framework for assessing the effects of FDI on competitiveness to guide policy-makers as well as further research. This study is part of the research project entitled, “Multilateral Rules on Trade and Investment,” supported by the NCCR project “International Trade Regulation: From Fragmentation to Coherence,” World Trade Institute (WTI), Berne.     

Shouldn't Physical Capital Also Matter for Multinational Enterprise Activity?

The foreign direct investment (FDI) literature has generally failed to find strong systematic evidence of “vertical” motivations in bilateral aggregate FDI and foreign affiliate sales (FAS) data, despite recent evidence of vertical FDI in firm‐level data. Moreover, a Bayesian analysis of the empirical determinants of FDI (and FAS) flows reveals that the parent country's physical capital per worker has a strong positive effect on FDI alongside typical gravity‐equation variables; however, this variable is ignored in the knowledge‐capital (KC) model and most empirical work. We address these two puzzles by introducing relative factor endowment differences into the three‐factor, three‐country knowledge and physical capital extension of the 2 × 2 × 2 KC model. Using a numerical version of our model, we show that horizontal and vertical multinational enterprises' (MNEs') headquarters surface in different parts of the Edgeworth box relating the parent country's skilled labor share relative to its physical capital share (of the parent's and host's endowments). The key economic insight is that horizontal MNE headquarters will be relatively more abundant than vertical MNE headquarters in countries that are abundant in physical capital relative to skilled labor, because of the multi‐plant (single‐plant) structure of horizontal (vertical) MNEs—assuming plants (headquarters) use physical capital (skilled labor) relatively intensively in their setups. The theoretical relationships suggest augmenting empirical FAS gravity equations with (polynomials of) the parent's skilled labor share alongside the parent's physical capital share to explain in aggregate bilateral data the coexistence of horizontal and vertical FAS. The theoretical and empirical results shed light on the positive effect of parent's physical capital share on FAS flows, but also suggest that MNE headquarters may be prominent in parent countries with relatively high and low skilled labor shares—once physical capital is accounted for—a result not suggested by the two‐factor KC model.     

Market Familiarity and the Location of South and North MNEs

We use a systematic empirical analysis of the determinants of South‐South (SS) and North‐South (NS) foreign direct investment (FDI) as a canvas to explore how multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) location decisions are shaped by better acquaintance with a foreign market resulting from bilateral ties, experience of international expansion, and knowledge of how to deal with poor governance. We find that these various aspects of market familiarity, which can interact together, are important to explain and differentiate the location behaviors of South MNEs (S‐MNEs) and North MNEs (N‐MNEs) in developing countries.     

Transportation Costs and US Manufacturing FDI

In empirical models of foreign direct investment (FDI), distance is most often used to proxy for transportation costs and other pure‐trade costs. Given that distance is time invariant but transportation costs are not, this approach is less than satisfactory when actual transportation costs rise and fall over time.The contribution of this work is to explicitly control for transportation costs and thereby better understand their impact on FDI. We explore the impact of shipping costs on total US FDI stocks abroad, manufacturing stocks and service stocks using measures of sea‐shipping and air‐shipping costs in a Hausman–Taylor model that controls for endogeneity and allows for time‐invariant variables such as distance. We find that transportation costs have a positive and statistically significant relationship with US total and manufacturing FDI, suggesting a substitute relationship between FDI and trade flows consistent with horizontal MNE activity. As one would expect, these costs are insignificant for service stocks.     

跨国公司收入最大化的行为模型

Departing from the traditional profit-maximization assumption underlying the theory of the multinational enterprises (MNEs), this paper proposes a model of the revenue-maximizing MNE subject to the profit constraint. The nonlinear programming techniques are used for the equilibrium analysis of the MNE’ s decision-making. A set of optimal conditions is derived regarding the quantity of output, volume of intra-firm trade, allocation of multinational production, as well as transfer prices in both exogenous and endogenous cases. Under the context, a comparison of the behavioral differences is made between the revenue-maximizing MNE and the profit-maximizing MNE.      

国际人才流入是否影响我国FDI区位选择

根据相关经验研究及理论模型可知,国际人才流入可通过降低国际贸易壁垒提高贸易自由度。利用2006-2013年中国内地29个省市面板数据,实证分析了国际人才流入对FDI区位分布的影响。结果显示,国际人才流入与地区FDI水平显著正相关,但国际人才流入对FDI区位分布的影响存在一定区域差异。同时,国际人才流入与企业经营环境及地理集聚水平之间存在某种替代效应,即国际人才流入能够在一定程度上弥补由于企业经营环境缺失和地理集聚水平低下带来的负面影响。此外,良好的企业经营环境和较高的地理集聚水平也对FDI区位分布具有重要影响。上述结论对于我国进一步提升外商直接投资国际竞争力及促进我国FDI区域分布平衡具有重要理论参考价值,同时也对其它新兴发展中国家具有启示作用。     

税收负担对企业固定资产投资的影响——基于税种差异视角的研究

本文以2003—2018年中国上市企业数据为样本,从税种差异视角分析了增值税有效税率与企业所得税有效税率变化对企业固定资产投资的影响。研究发现,增值税有效税率与企业固定资产投资的关系依赖于宏观经济环境和企业税负转嫁能力。具体而言,在经济上行期或税负转嫁能力较强的企业中,增值税有效税率降低促进了企业固定资产投资增加。所得税有效税率与企业固定资产投资之间始终为显著负相关关系。所得税有效税率的降低可以通过增强企业内外部融资能力来促进其固定资产投资增加,特别是当企业债务风险相对较低时,所得税有效税率下降对固定资产投资的正向影响效果会随企业融资约束程度的上升而增大。本文分析在一定程度上说明了不同税种的税负变化对企业投资产生差异化影响,进而为减税助力企业投资提供了新的微观经验证据。     

Foreign direct investment in a world of multiple taxes

Governments impose multiple taxes on foreign investors, though studies of the effect of tax policy on the location of foreign direct investment (FDI) focus almost exclusively on corporate income taxes. This paper examines the impact of indirect (non-income) taxes on FDI by American multinational firms, using affiliate-level data that permit the introduction of controls for parent companies and affiliate industries. Indirect tax burdens significantly exceed the foreign income tax obligations of foreign affiliates of American companies. Estimates imply that 10% higher local indirect tax rates are associated with 7.1% lower affiliate assets, which is similar to the effect of 10% higher income tax rates. Affiliate output falls by 2.9% as indirect taxes rise by 10%, while higher income taxes have more modest output effects. High corporate income tax rates depress capital/labor ratios and profit rates of foreign affiliates, whereas high indirect tax rates do not. These patterns reveal the impact of indirect taxes and suggest the mechanisms by which direct and indirect taxes affect FDI.     

Taxes and Decision Rights in Multinationals

We examine how a multinational's choice to centralize or decentralize its decision structure is affected by country tax differentials. Within a simple model that emphasizes the multiple conflicting roles of transfer prices in multinational enterprises (MNEs)—here, as a strategic precommitment device and a tax manipulation instrument—we show that centralization is more profitable when tax differentials are large. When tax differentials are small, decentralization can be performed in two different ways each providing the highest profits in a particular range of the tax differential. Hence, the paper emphasizes the organizational flexibility that MNEs have in pursuing tax optimization.     

Foreign direct investment and bilateral investment treaties: An international political perspective

This paper investigates the effect of the implementation of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) on the bilateral stocks of foreign direct investment (FDI). We argue that the understanding of how BITs affect FDI requires recognizing that multinational enterprises (MNEs) are not Stateless and that their investment return may well depend on the quality of political relations between the home and host countries. Using bilateral FDI data and event data to measure political interactions between countries, we show that the effect of the entry into force of a BIT crucially depends on the quality of political relations between the signatory countries; it increases FDI more between countries with tense relationships than between friendly countries. We also find evidence that BITs and good domestic institutions are complementary. BITs should therefore be understood as a mechanism for host governments to credibly commit not to expropriate investors in the future.     

Taxes,institutions and foreign diversification opportunities

Investors can access foreign diversification opportunities through either foreign portfolio investment (FPI) or foreign direct investment (FDI). The worldwide tax regime employed by the US potentially distorts this choice by penalizing FDI, relative to FPI, in low-tax countries. On the other hand, weak investor protections in foreign countries may increase the value of control, creating an incentive to use FDI rather than FPI. By combining data on US outbound FPI and FDI, this paper analyzes whether the composition of US outbound capital flows reflects these incentives to bypass home and host country institutional regimes. The results suggest that the residual tax on US multinational firms' foreign earnings skews the composition of outbound capital flows — a 10% decrease in a foreign country's corporate tax rate increases US investors' equity FPI holdings by approximately 10%, controlling for effects on FDI. Investor protections also seem to shape portfolio choices, though these results are not robust when only within-country variation is employed.     

我国外商投资企业转移定价避税应对策略

根据跨国公司转移定价避税与东道国税务机关反避税调查博弈分析的结论,在新《企业所得税法》实施的环境下,我国有效应对外商投资企业转移定价避税的措施是:提高避税的处罚率,加大对外商投资企业滥用转移定价避税的处罚力度;通过完善税务操作规程与细则,增大外商投资企业利用转移定价避税的成本;推广预约定价制度,严格控制税务机关对转移定价进行反避税的调查成本。