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Foreign Firms, Domestic Wages

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Author Info
Nikolaj Malchow-Møller (University of Southern Denmark)
James R. Markusen (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Bertel Schjerning (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)

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Abstract

Many papers have documented a wage premium in foreign-owned and large firms. However, there is very little formal theory in the literature and empirical analyses are typically not based on hypotheses which are rigorously derived from theory. This paper contributes to the theory-empirics gap by developing a model that allows for two “pure” explanations for the wage premium. The first is a heterogenous-worker explanation along the lines of Yeaple (2005), where firms that select more scaleintensive technologies select ex-ante more productive workers. In this case, the wage premium is a pure selection phenomenon. The second explanation builds on the heterogeneous-firm model of Melitz (2003) combined with on-the-job learning as in Markusen (2001). Productivity differences between firms are internalized by ex-ante homogeneous workers, so the wage premium is a pure learning phenomenon due to ex-post higher productivity in foreign firms. Our model yields a number of precise empirical hypotheses. When these predictions are tested on Danish matched employer-employee data, we find that both explanations play a role in explaining the observed wage premium. Specifically, the foreign- and large-firm premiums explained by selection are in the neighborhood of 30-65% of the total premium, with the remainder consistent with learning. There is also considerable support for a number of other predictions specific to the worker-learning explanation.

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Paper provided by University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Applied Microeconometrics in its series CAM Working Papers with number 2009-02.

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Length: 28 pages
Date of creation: Jan 2009
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Handle: RePEc:kud:kuieca:2009_02

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  2. Fosfuri, Andrea & Motta, Massimo & Ronde, Thomas, 2001. "Foreign direct investment and spillovers through workers' mobility," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 205-222, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Robert E. Lipsey, 2002. "Home and Host Country Effects of FDI," NBER Working Papers 9293, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Idson, Todd L & Feaster, Daniel J, 1990. "A Selectivity Model of Employer-Size Wage Differentials," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 8(1), pages 99-122, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. Aitken, Brian & Harrison, Ann & Lipsey, Robert E., 1996. "Wages and foreign ownership A comparative study of Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-4), pages 345-371, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Almeida, Rita, 2003. "The Effects of Foreign Owned Firms on the Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 785, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  8. Girma, Sourafel & Görg, Holger, 2006. "Evaluating the Foreign Ownership Wage Premium Using a Difference-in-Differences Matching Approach," CEPR Discussion Papers 5788, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Helpman, Elhanan & Melitz, Marc J & Yeaple, Stephen R, 2003. "Export versus FDI," CEPR Discussion Papers 3741, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Jonathan E. Haskel & Sonia C. Pereira & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2002. "Does Inward Foreign Direct Investment Boost the Productivity of Domestic Firms?," NBER Working Papers 8724, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. James R. Markusen & Natalia Trofimenko, 2007. "Teaching Locals New Tricks: Foreign Experts as a Channel of Knowledge Transfers," NBER Working Papers 12872, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  14. Jarle Moen, 2005. "Is Mobility of Technical Personnel a Source of R&D Spillovers?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 23(1), pages 81-114, January. [Downloadable!]
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  17. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  18. Kimberly Bayard & Kenneth R. Troske, 1999. "Examining the Employer-Size Wage Premium in the Manufacturing, Retail Trade, and Service Industries Using Employer-Employee Matched Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 99-103, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  20. Markusen, James R., 2001. "Contracts, intellectual property rights, and multinational investment in developing countries," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 189-204, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  21. Ethier, Wilfred J. & Markusen, James R., 1996. "Multinational firms, technology diffusion and trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1-2), pages 1-28, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  22. Holger Görg & Eric Strobl, 2005. "Spillovers from Foreign Firms through Worker Mobility: An Empirical Investigation," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 107(4), pages 693-709, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. Evans, David S. & Leighton, Linda S., 1987. "Why do Smaller Firms Pay Less?," Working Papers 87-19, C.V. Starr Center for Applied Economics, New York University. [Downloadable!]
  24. Beata Smarzynska Javorcik, 2004. "Does Foreign Direct Investment Increase the Productivity of Domestic Firms? In Search of Spillovers Through Backward Linkages," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 605-627, June. [Downloadable!]
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  25. Elhanan Helpman & Marc J. Melitz & Stephen R. Yeaple, 2004. "Export Versus FDI with Heterogeneous Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 300-316, March. [Downloadable!]
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  27. repec:rus:hseeco:122439 is not listed on IDEAS
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Csengödi, Sándor / Urban, Dieter M., 2008. "Foreign Takeovers and Wage Dispersion in Hungary," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  2. Åkerman, Anders & Forslid, Rikard, 2009. "Firm Heterogeneity and Country Size Dependent Market Entry Cost," Working Paper Series 790, Research Institute of Industrial Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Akerman, Anders & Forslid, Rikard, 2007. "Country Size, Productivity and Trade Share Convergence: An Analysis of Heterogenous Firms and Country Size Dependent Beachhead Costs," CEPR Discussion Papers 6545, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Mario Larch & Wolfgang Lechthaler, 2008. "Multinational Firms and Heterogeneous Workers," Kiel Working Papers 1454, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
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