LINKAGES: DO FOREIGN FIRMS BUY LOCALLY IN TAIWAN?*

Linkages are important potential impacts of DFI upon host economies. Since these potentialities are not necessarily realized, we must separate the potential (ex ante) and actual (ex post) results of these effects. Empirical data for Taiwan in the 1970s show that DFI may tend to concentrate in industries with strong backward linkages. More significantly, DFI located in EPZs or controlled by non-Chinese investors had a clear tendency to import more and, hence, to form enclaves. However, this group of firms greatly improved its procurement policies over time. Thus, while discernible in the short run, the enclavistic phenomenon linked to DFI becomes insignificant in the long run, as shown by Taiwan's experience. Needless to say, the gradual rise of the local content rate of foreign firms is in line with successful development of the local material industries in Taiwan in the 1970s (Schive, forthcoming). In addition to the time factor, several firms specific factors such as foreign ownership structure, export propensity, status as a producer of either final or intermediate goods, status as a “neighboring” or “distant” investor, and the scale of operation all have a bearing on foreign firms' local purchasing behavior. To determine whether these findings pertain to Taiwan only, further country comparative studies are needed.