IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jdevst/v35y1999i4p117-137.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Foreign direct investment, R&D and spillover efficiency: Evidence from Taiwan's manufacturing firms

Author

Listed:
  • Yih-Chyi Chuang
  • Chi-Mei Lin

Abstract

Using Taiwanese firm-level data, we confirm that foreign direct investment and R&D have a positive impact, or spillover effect, on productivity. Furthermore, labour quality, firm size, market structure, and export orientation all affect a firm's productivity. Applying Heckman's [1976] two-stage estimation method, we find that firms self-select into R&D or non-R&D groups. After correcting for this selection bias, we find that foreign direct investment, local technology purchase, and outward foreign investment are substitutes to R&D activity. These results are mainly due to the significant effect of industry-wide technology spillovers. The major policy implications derived from this study are that governments in developing countries may first wish to adopt policies encouraging foreign direct investment to foster technology transfer and industry-wide knowledge spillovers in the short run. However, once the country's technological capability is established it appears critical to switch towards policies that provide a preferred environment to stimulate R&D investment (for example, infrastructure improvement and protection of intellectual property rights) to allow for sustainable economic growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Yih-Chyi Chuang & Chi-Mei Lin, 1999. "Foreign direct investment, R&D and spillover efficiency: Evidence from Taiwan's manufacturing firms," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(4), pages 117-137.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:35:y:1999:i:4:p:117-137
    DOI: 10.1080/00220389908422583
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00220389908422583
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00220389908422583?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Coe, David T. & Helpman, Elhanan, 1995. "International R&D spillovers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 859-887, May.
    2. Deolalikar, Anil B & Evenson, Robert E, 1989. "Technology Production and Technology Purchase in Indian Industry: An Econometric Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 71(4), pages 689-692, November.
    3. Caves, Richard E, 1974. "Multinational Firms, Competition, and Productivity in Host-Country Markets," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 41(162), pages 176-193, May.
    4. Braga, Helson & Willmore, Larry, 1991. "Technological Imports and Technological Effort: An Analysis of Their Determinants in Brazilian Firms," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(4), pages 421-432, June.
    5. Basant, Rakesh & Fikkert, Brian, 1996. "The Effects of R&D, Foreign Technology Purchase, and Domestic and International Spillovers on Productivity in Indian Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 78(2), pages 187-199, May.
    6. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    7. Cohen, Wesley M & Levinthal, Daniel A, 1989. "Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R&D," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(397), pages 569-596, September.
    8. Aw, B. -Y. & Hwang, A. R., 1995. "Productivity and the export market: A firm-level analysis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 313-332, August.
    9. Segerstrom, Paul S, 1991. "Innovation, Imitation, and Economic Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(4), pages 807-827, August.
    10. Chuang, Yih-Chyi, 1998. "Learning by Doing, the Technology Gap, and Growth," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(3), pages 697-721, August.
    11. Jeffrey I. Bernstein & M. Ishaq Nadiri, 1989. "Research and Development and Intra-industry Spillovers: An Empirical Application of Dynamic Duality," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(2), pages 249-267.
    12. David J. Teece, 2008. "Technology Transfer By Multinational Firms: The Resource Cost Of Transferring Technological Know-How," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Transfer And Licensing Of Know-How And Intellectual Property Understanding the Multinational Enterprise in the Modern World, chapter 1, pages 1-22, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    13. Romer, Paul M, 1990. "Endogenous Technological Change," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 71-102, October.
    14. Steven Globerman, 1979. "Foreign Direct Investment and `Spillover' Efficiency Benefits in Canadian Manufacturing Industries," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 12(1), pages 42-56, February.
    15. Raut, Lakshmi K., 1995. "R & D spillover and productivity growth: Evidence from Indian private firms," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 1-23, October.
    16. Katrak, Homi, 1990. "Imports of technology and the technological effort of Indian enterprises," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 371-381, March.
    17. Albach, Horst, 1980. "Average and Best-Practice Production Functions in German Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 55-70, September.
    18. Haddad, Mona & Harrison, Ann, 1993. "Are there positive spillovers from direct foreign investment? : Evidence from panel data for Morocco," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 51-74, October.
    19. Bernstein, Jeffrey I, 1989. "The Structure of Canadian Inter-industry R&D Spillovers, and the Rates of Return to R&D," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 315-328, March.
    20. Szpiro, Daniel & Cette, Gilbert, 1994. "Returns to scale in the French manufacturing industry," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 1493-1504, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Neil Foster-McGregor, 2012. "Innovation and Technology Transfer across Countries," wiiw Research Reports 380, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    2. Sharma, Chandan, 2018. "Exporting, access of foreign technology, and firms’ performance: Searching the link in Indian manufacturing," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 46-62.
    3. Argentino Pessoa, 2008. "Multinational Corporations, Foreign Investment, and Royalties and License Fees: Effects on Host-Country Total Factor Productivity," Notas Económicas, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, issue 28, pages 6-31, December.
    4. Sasidharan, Subash & Kathuria, Vinish, 2011. "Foreign Direct Investment and R&D: Substitutes or Complements--A Case of Indian Manufacturing after 1991 Reforms," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 1226-1239, July.
    5. Griffith, Rachel & Redding, Stephen & Simpson, Helen, 2002. "Productivity Convergence and Foreign Ownership at the Establishment Level," CEPR Discussion Papers 3765, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Chandan Sharma, 2016. "R&D, Technology Transfer And Productivity In The Indian Pharmaceutical Industry," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(01), pages 1-24, January.
    7. Xu, Bin, 2000. "Multinational enterprises, technology diffusion, and host country productivity growth," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 477-493, August.
    8. Katrak, Homi, 1997. "Developing countries' imports of technology, in-house technological capabilities and efforts: an analysis of the Indian experience," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 67-83, June.
    9. Argentino Pessoa, 2005. "Foreign direct investment and total factor productivity in OECD countries: evidence from aggregate data," FEP Working Papers 188, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    10. Gachino, Geoffrey, 2007. "Foreign direct investment and firm level productivity - A panel data analysis," MERIT Working Papers 2007-016, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    11. García, Francisco & Avella, Lucía & Fernández, Esteban, 2012. "Learning from exporting: The moderating effect of technological capabilities," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 1099-1111.
    12. Blomström, Magnus & Kokko, Ari & Globerman, Steve, 2000. "The Determinants of Host Country Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment," CEPR Discussion Papers 2350, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Jože P. Damijan & Mark Knell, 2005. "How Important Is Trade and Foreign Ownership in Closing the Technology Gap? Evidence from Estonia and Slovenia," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 141(2), pages 271-295, July.
    14. Fredrik Sjoholm, 1999. "Technology gap, competition and spillovers from direct foreign investment: Evidence from establishment data," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 53-73.
    15. Mastromarco, Camilla & Ghosh, Sucharita, 2009. "Foreign Capital, Human Capital, and Efficiency: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis for Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 489-502, February.
    16. Madan Dhanora & Ruchi Sharma & Walter G. Park, 2021. "Technological Innovations and Market Power: A Study of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry," Millennial Asia, , vol. 12(1), pages 5-34, April.
    17. Gustavsson, Patrik & Hansson, Par & Lundberg, Lars, 1999. "Technology, resource endowments and international competitiveness," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(8), pages 1501-1530, August.
    18. Hala Abou-Ali & Mohammed Belhaj, 2008. "Cost Benefit Analysis of Desert Locusts Control: A Multicountry Perspective," Working Papers 801, Economic Research Forum, revised 01 Jan 2008.
    19. Patibandla, Murali & Sanyal, Amal, 2005. "Foreign Investment and Productivity: A Study of Post-reform Indian Industry," Review of Applied Economics, Lincoln University, Department of Financial and Business Systems, vol. 1(1), pages 1-17, June.
    20. Bin Qiu & Shuai Yang & Peijiang Xin & Berna Kirkulak, 2009. "FDI technology spillover and the productivity growth of China’s manufacturing sector," Frontiers of Economics in China, Springer;Higher Education Press, vol. 4(2), pages 209-227, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:35:y:1999:i:4:p:117-137. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FJDS20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.