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The Comovement of Returns and Investment Within the Multinational Firm

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Author Info
Mihir A. Desai
C. Fritz Foley
Abstract

Can financial integration, particularly the cross-border investments of multinational firms, help explain the synchronization of business cycles? This paper presents evidence on the comovement of returns and investment within U.S. multinational firms to address this question. These firms constitute significant fractions of economic output and investment in most large economies, suggesting that they could create significant economic linkages. Aggregate measures of rates of return and investment rates of U.S. multinational firms located in different countries are highly correlated across countries. Firm-level regressions demonstrate that rates of return and investment rates of affiliates are highly correlated with the rates of return and investment of the affiliate's parent and other affiliates within the same parent system, controlling for country and industry factors. The evidence on these interrelationships and the importance of multinationals to local economies suggests that global firms may be an important channel for transmitting economic shocks. This evidence also sheds light on asset pricing puzzles related to the diversification benefits provided by multinational firms.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10785.

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Date of creation: Sep 2004
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10785

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
F36 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Financial Aspects of Economic Integration
F42 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - International Policy Coordination and Transmission
G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets

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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. Paolo Panteghini, 2009. "The capital structure of multinational companies under tax competition," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 59-81, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Buch, Claudia M. & Lipponer, Alexander, 2005. "Business cycles and FDI : evidence from German sectoral data," Discussion Paper Series 1: Economic Studies 2005,09, Deutsche Bundesbank, Research Centre. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Ariel Burstein & Christopher Johann Kurz & Linda Tesar, 2004. "Trade, Production Sharing and the International Transmission of Business Cycles," Working Papers 522, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Diemo Dietrich, 2006. "Asset tangibility and capital allocation within multinational corporations," IWH Discussion Papers 4-06, Halle Institute for Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  5. Mauro Ghinamo & Paolo M. Panteghini & Federico Revelli, 2008. "FDI Determination and Corporate Tax Competition in a Volatile World," Working Papers 0802, University of Brescia, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Paolo Panteghini & Guttorm Schjelderup, 2006. "To Invest or not to Invest: A real options approach to FDIs and tax competition," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer, vol. 13(6), pages 643-660, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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