IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/openec/v18y2007i2p215-232.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Role of the Efficiency Gap for Spillovers from FDI: Evidence from the UK Electronics and Engineering Sectors

Author

Listed:
  • Sourafel Girma
  • Holger Görg

Abstract

This paper focuses on the role of the efficiency gap in determining whether or not domestic firms benefit from productivity spillovers from FDI. We use establishment level data for the period 1980–1992 for the UK. Given that there is substantial heterogeneity of productivity across sectors we focus on two manufacturing sectors in detail, namely, electronics and engineering. We allow for different effects of FDI on establishments located at different quantiles of the productivity distribution by using conditional quantile regression. Overall, while there is some heterogeneity in results across sectors and quantiles, our findings clearly suggest that the efficiency gap matters for productivity spillover benefits. We find evidence for a u-shaped relationship between productivity growth and FDI interacted with the efficiency gap. We also analyse in some detail the impact of changes in relative efficiency on establishments’ ability to benefit from spillovers. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007

Suggested Citation

  • Sourafel Girma & Holger Görg, 2007. "The Role of the Efficiency Gap for Spillovers from FDI: Evidence from the UK Electronics and Engineering Sectors," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 215-232, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:openec:v:18:y:2007:i:2:p:215-232
    DOI: 10.1007/s11079-007-9031-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11079-007-9031-y
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11079-007-9031-y?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. Glass, Amy Jocelyn & Saggi, Kamal, 1998. "International technology transfer and the technology gap," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 369-398, April.
    2. Magnus Blomström & Ari Kokko & Mario Zejan, 2000. "Local Technological Capability and Productivity Spillovers from FDI in the Uruguayan Manufacturing Sector," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Foreign Direct Investment, chapter 11, pages 177-186, Palgrave Macmillan.
    3. Koenker, Roger W & Bassett, Gilbert, Jr, 1978. "Regression Quantiles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 33-50, January.
    4. Nickell, Stephen J, 1996. "Competition and Corporate Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 104(4), pages 724-746, August.
    5. Kokko, Ari & Tansini, Ruben & Zejan, Mario, 1994. "Productivity Spillovers from FDI in the Uruguayan Manufacturing Sector," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 2, Stockholm School of Economics.
    6. Brian J. Aitken & Ann E. Harrison, 2022. "Do Domestic Firms Benefit from Direct Foreign Investment? Evidence from Venezuela," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Globalization, Firms, and Workers, chapter 6, pages 139-152, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Ronald Findlay, 1978. "Relative Backwardness, Direct Foreign Investment, and the Transfer of Technology: A Simple Dynamic Model," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 92(1), pages 1-16.
    8. 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.
    9. Pesaran, M. Hashem & Smith, Ron, 1995. "Estimating long-run relationships from dynamic heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 79-113, July.
    10. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    11. Magnus Blomström & Ari Kokko & Mario Zejan, 2000. "Technology, Market Characteristics and Spillovers," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Foreign Direct Investment, chapter 10, pages 160-176, Palgrave Macmillan.
    12. Sourafel Girma & David Greenaway & Katharine Wakelin, 2013. "Who Benefits from Foreign Direct Investment in the UK?," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 60(5), pages 560-574, November.
    13. Wolfgang Keller, 2004. "International Technology Diffusion," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 752-782, September.
    14. Andrea Fosfuri & Massimo Motta, 1999. "Multinationals without Advantages," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(4), pages 617-630, December.
    15. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    16. Mark Doms & Eric J. Bartelsman, 2000. "Understanding Productivity: Lessons from Longitudinal Microdata," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(3), pages 569-594, September.
    17. repec:bla:scotjp:v:48:y:2001:i:2:p:119-33 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Holger Görg & Eric Strobl, 2016. "Multinational Companies And Productivity Spillovers: A Meta-Analysis," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND HOST COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT Volume 53: World Scientific Studies in International Economics, chapter 8, pages 145-161, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    19. Rachel Griffith & Helen Simpson, 2004. "Characteristics of Foreign-Owned Firms in British Manufacturing," NBER Chapters, in: Seeking a Premier Economy: The Economic Effects of British Economic Reforms, 1980–2000, pages 147-180, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. repec:bla:scandj:v:101:y:1999:i:4:p:617-30 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Dimelis, S. & Louri-Dendrinou, Eleni, 2001. "Foreign Direct Investment and Efficiency Benefits: A Conditional Quantile Analysis," CEPR Discussion Papers 2868, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    22. Wakelin, Katharine & Girma, Sourafel, 2001. "Regional Underdevelopment: Is FDI the Solution? A Semiparametric Analysis," CEPR Discussion Papers 2995, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    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. Sourafel Girma, & Holger Görg, 2003. "Foreign direct investmant, spillovers and absorptive capacity: Evidence from quantile regressions," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp01, IIIS.
    2. Sourafel Girma, 2005. "Absorptive Capacity and Productivity Spillovers from FDI: A Threshold Regression Analysis," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 67(3), pages 281-306, June.
    3. Greenaway, David & Görg, Holger, 2002. "Much Ado About Nothing? Do Domestic Firms Really Benefit from Foreign Investment?," CEPR Discussion Papers 3485, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Holger Görg & David Greenaway, 2016. "Much Ado about Nothing? Do Domestic Firms Really Benefit from Foreign Direct Investment?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND HOST COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT Volume 53: World Scientific Studies in International Economics, chapter 9, pages 163-189, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Della Temenggung, 2007. "Productivity Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment: Indonesian Manufacturing Industry’s Experience 1975-2000," DEGIT Conference Papers c012_048, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    6. Damijan, Jože P. & Rojec, Matija & Majcen, Boris & Knell, Mark, 2013. "Impact of firm heterogeneity on direct and spillover effects of FDI: Micro-evidence from ten transition countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 895-922.
    7. Lai, Mingyong & Wang, Hua & Zhu, Shujin, 2009. "Double-edged effects of the technology gap and technology spillovers: Evidence from the Chinese industrial sector," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 414-424, September.
    8. Muhammed BENLI, 2016. "Productivity spillovers from FDI in Turkey: Evidence from quantile regressions," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(3(608), A), pages 177-196, Autumn.
    9. Muhammed BENLI, 2016. "Productivity spillovers from FDI in Turkey: Evidence from quantile regressions," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(3(608), A), pages 177-196, Autumn.
    10. Peri, Giovanni & Urban, Dieter, 2006. "Catching-up to foreign technology? Evidence on the "Veblen-Gerschenkron" effect of foreign investments," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 72-98, January.
    11. Jitao Tang & Rosanne Altshuler, 2015. "The Spillover Effects Of Outward Foreign Direct Investment On Home Countries: Evidence From The United States," Departmental Working Papers 201501, Rutgers University, Department of Economics.
    12. Farole, Thomas & Winkler, Deborah, 2012. "Foreign firm characteristics, absorptive capacity and the institutional framework : the role of mediating factors for FDI spillovers in low- and middle-income countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6265, The World Bank.
    13. Muhammed BENLI, 2016. "FDI and export spillovers using Heckman’s two step approach: Evidence from Turkish manufacturing data," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania - AGER, vol. 0(4(609), W), pages 315-342, Winter.
    14. 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.
    15. Neil Foster-McGregor, 2012. "Innovation and Technology Transfer across Countries," wiiw Research Reports 380, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    16. Argentino Pessoa, 2007. "FDI and Host Country Productivity: A Review," FEP Working Papers 251, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    17. Priit Vahter, 2010. "Does FDI spur innovation, productivity and knowledge sourcing by incumbent firms? Evidence from manufacturing industry in Estonia," Discussion Papers 10/09, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    18. Shandre M. Thangavelu & Sanja Samirana Pattnayak, 2006. "Linkages and Spillovers from Foreign Ownership in the Indian Pharmaceutical Firms," SCAPE Policy Research Working Paper Series 0605, National University of Singapore, Department of Economics, SCAPE.
    19. Sarker, Bibhuti & Serieux, John, 2022. "Foreign-invested and domestic firm attributes and spillover effects: Evidence from Brazil," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    20. Pradhan, Jaya Prakash, 2004. "FDI spillovers and local productivity growth: evidence from Indian pharmaceutical industry," MPRA Paper 17080, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Foreign direct investment; Efficiency gap; Productivity spillovers; Quantile regressions; F21; F23;
    All these keywords.

    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

    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:kap:openec:v:18:y:2007:i:2:p:215-232. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.