FDI, gender spillovers and firm productivity: the Namibian case

The benefits of FDI to domestic firms encompass technology and knowledge diffusion, known as spillovers. Knowledge transmission from MNCs can largely differ between total labour and female labour, yet this critical distinction remains a void in the literature. Using data from the World Bank Enterprises Survey and a new measure of spillovers to capture the gender dimension, this study provides empirical evidence on the impact of FDI spillovers on domestic firm productivity in both Namibia's manufacturing and services sectors. The study finds a general negative effect of gender spillovers on domestic services firms' productivity, and none in the manufacturing sector. However, the productivity effects of gender spillovers are positive when conditioned on managers' years of experience in both sectors as well as on technology in the manufacturing sector. These findings provide important policy implications on how technology and managerial expertise can be used to tap into the potential of female employees to absorb their productivity benefits.