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Foreign direct investment in services and the domestic market for expertise

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Author Info
Markusen, James
Rutherford, Thomas F.
Tarr, David

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Abstract

A growing body of evidence suggests that the close availability of diverse business services is important for economic growth. Producer services such as managerial and engineering consulting can provide specialized knowledge to help domestic firms develop at lower unit cost. But these intermediate services are often nontraded, or costly to trade, which may be one reason that cities and industrial complexes form and economic performance differs across regions. Because services are costly to trade, foreign services are best transferred through foreign direct investment. This has important implications for public policy. Policies that affect foreign direct investment differ considerably from those that affect trade in goods. The authors develop a model of services, results from which show that: A) Liberalizing restraints on inward foreign direct investment has a powerful positive impact on the income and welfare of the importing country. The impact is much stronger than in traditional competitive models of trade in goods. B) Policies to protect domestic skilled labor against competition from imported services can have the perverse effect of lowering returns to domestic skilled labor-because while imported services economize on the use of domestic skilled labor (compared with domestic service industries), the positive effects on scale and productivity in the downstream industry can be powerful enough that the real wages of domestic skilled labor rise after the liberalization of foreign direct investment in service industries. In other words, domestic skilled labor and foreign direct investment are partial-equilibrium substitutes in the model but are typically general-equilibrium complements. C)The increase in the variety of imported services leads to increased total factor productivity in downstream industries, but the relative impact on downstream industries depends on how intensively they use intermediate services. The differential in effects on productivity in the production of final goods can be strong enough that permitting foreign direct investment can actually affect whether a good is exported rather than being imported. Policymakers should be aware that protection of a domestic service industry affects different constituencies differently. Although domestic capital owners may be adversely affected by foreign direct investment, domestic skilled workers in the industry are likely to see demand for their skills-and their real wages-rise. Moreover, downstream industries that use the service unambiguously benefit from foreign direct investment and their expansion can be surprisingly strong.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 2413.

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Date of creation: 31 Aug 2000
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:2413

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Keywords: Payment Systems&Infrastructure; Environmental Economics&Policies; Economic Theory&Research; Banks&Banking Reform; Health Economics&Finance; Environmental Economics&Policies; Economic Theory&Research; Health Economics&Finance; Banks&Banking Reform; Municipal Financial Management;

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References listed on IDEAS
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.:
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(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. James R. Markusen & Thomas F. Rutherford, 2004. "Learning on the Quick and Cheap: Gains from Trade Through Imported Expertise," NBER Working Papers 10603, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. John Whalley, 2003. "Assessing the Benefits to Developing Countries of Liberalization in Services Trade," NBER Working Papers 10181, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Konan, Denise Eby & Maskus, Keith E., 2003. "Quantifying the impact of services liberalization in a developing country," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3193, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Bernard Hoekman & Will Martín, 1999. "Some Market Access Issues for Developing Countries in a Millennium Round: Results from Recent World Bank Research," Cuadernos de Economía (Latin American Journal of Economics), Instituto de Economía. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile., vol. 36(109), pages 947-978. [Downloadable!]
  5. Rutherford, Thomas & Tarr, David & Shepotylo, Oleksandr, 2005. "The impact on Russia of WTO accession and the Doha agenda : the importance of liberalization of barriers against foreign direct investment in services for growth and poverty reduction," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3725, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  6. Jensen, Jesper & Tarr, David, 2007. "The impact of Kazakhstan accession to the World Trade Organization : a quantitative assessment," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4142, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  7. Raff, Horst & von der Ruhr, Marc, 2001. "Foreign Direct Investment in Producer Services: Theory and Empirical Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  8. Drusilla K. Brown & Robert M. Stern, 2000. "Measurement and Modeling of the Economic Effects of Trade and Investment Barriers in Services," Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University 0001, Department of Economics, Tufts University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Svend E. Hougaard Jensen & Tobias N. Rasmussen & Thomas Fox Rutherford, 2002. "Economic Transition, Entrepreneurial Capacity, and Intergenerational Distribution," IMF Working Papers 02/180, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  10. Jensen, Jesper & Rutherford, Thomas & Tarr, David, 2004. "The impact of liberalizing barriers to foreign direct investment in services - the case of Russian accession to the World Trade Organization," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3391, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  11. Bernard Hoekman, 2000. "The next round of services negotiations: identifying priorities and options," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Jul, pages 31-52. [Downloadable!]
  12. Rutherford, Thomas & Tarr, David & Shepotylo, Oleksandr, 2005. "Poverty effects of Russia's WTO accession : modeling"real"households and endogenous productivity effects," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3473, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  13. Hoekman, Bernard & Messerlin, Patrick, 2002. "Initial conditions and incentives for Arab economic integration : can the European Community's success be emulated?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2921, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  14. James Markusen & Thomas F. Rutherford, 2004. "Learning on the Cheap and Quick: Gains from trade through imported expertise," DEGIT Conference Papers c009_002, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade. [Downloadable!]
  15. Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås, 2002. "Patterns of foreign direct investment in poor countries," Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 247-265, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Denise Eby Konan & Ari Van Assche, 2006. "Regulation, Market Structure and Service Trade Liberalization," CIRANO Working Papers 2006s-18, CIRANO. [Downloadable!]
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