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Foreign Investment and Domestic Productivity: Identifying Knowledge Spillovers and Competition Effects

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  • Christian Fons-Rosen
  • Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan
  • Bent E. Sørensen
  • Carolina Villegas-Sánchez
  • Vadym Volosovych

Abstract

We study the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on total factor productivity (TFP) of domestic firms using a new, representative firm-level data set spanning six countries. A novel finding is that firm-level spillovers from foreign firms to domestic companies can be significantly positive, non-existent, or even negative, depending on which sectors receive FDI. When foreign firms produce in the same narrow sector as domestic firms, the latter are negatively affected by increasing competition and positively affected by knowledge spillovers. We find that the positive spillovers dominate if foreign firms enter sectors where firms are “technologically close,” controlling for the endogeneity of their entry decision into such sectors. Positive technology spillovers also affect firms in other sectors, if those sectors are technologically close to the sectors receiving FDI. Increasing FDI in sectors that are technologically close to other sectors boosts TFP of domestic firms by twice as much as increasing FDI by the same amount across all sectors.

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  • Christian Fons-Rosen & Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan & Bent E. Sørensen & Carolina Villegas-Sánchez & Vadym Volosovych, 2017. "Foreign Investment and Domestic Productivity: Identifying Knowledge Spillovers and Competition Effects," Working Papers 986, Barcelona School of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:bge:wpaper:986
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    5. Yilmaz Bayar & Marius Dan Gavriletea & Zeki Ucar, 2018. "Financial Sector Development, Openness, and Entrepreneurship: Panel Regression Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-11, September.
    6. Abebe, Girum & McMillan, Margaret & Serafinelli, Michel, 2022. "Foreign direct investment and knowledge diffusion in poor locations," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    7. Henning Mühlen & Octavio Escobar, 2020. "The role of FDI in structural change: Evidence from Mexico," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 557-585, March.
    8. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2023. "Do Aid for Trade Flows Affect Technology Licensing in Recipient Countries?," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-31, December.
    9. Francesca de Nicola & Balázs Muraközy & Shawn W. Tan, 2021. "Spillovers from high growth firms: evidence from Hungary," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 127-150, June.
    10. Köllö, János & Boza, István & Balázsi, László, 2021. "Wage gains from foreign ownership: evidence from linked employer-employee data," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 55, pages 1-3.
    11. Bloechliger, H. & Wildnerova, L., 2020. "Productivity of the Russian firms: Seven stylized facts," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 48(4), pages 217-227.
    12. Novikova, Tatyana S., 2022. "Investments in research infrastructure on the project level: Problems, methods and mechanisms," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    13. Crescenzi, Riccardo & Limodio, Nicola, 2021. "The impact of Chinese FDI in Africa: evidence from Ethiopia," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108455, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Yoonseok Lee & Mary E. Lovely & Hoang Pham, 2023. "Dynamic and non‐neutral productivity effects of foreign ownership: A nonparametric approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(1), pages 24-48, January.
    15. Arūnas Burinskas & Rasmus Bøgh Holmen & Manuela Tvaronavičienė & Agnė Šimelytė & Kristina Razminienė, 2021. "FDI, technology & knowledge transfer from Nordic to Baltic countries," Post-Print hal-03583969, HAL.
    16. Lishi Liu & Shuang Meng & Jiajie Yu, 2022. "Innovation from Spatial Spillovers of FDI and the Threshold Effect of Urbanization: Evidence from Chinese Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-16, May.
    17. Shunan Zhao & Man Jin & Subal C. Kumbhakar, 2021. "Estimation of firm productivity in the presence of spillovers and common shocks," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 60(6), pages 3135-3170, June.
    18. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2023. "Do Aid for Trade flows affect Technology Licensing in Recipient Countries?," EconStor Preprints 273419, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    19. Dyaran Bansraj & Han Smit & Vadym Volosovych, 2020. "Can Private Equity Funds Act as Strategic Buyers? Evidence from Buy-and-Build Strategies," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 20-041/IV, Tinbergen Institute.
    20. Bournakis, Ioannis & Papanastassiou, Marina & Papaioannou, Sotiris, 2020. "Multinationals and Domestic TFP: Market Shares, Agglomerations Gains and Foreign Ownership," MPRA Paper 106626, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Hou, Zhezhi & Jin, Man & Kumbhakar, Subal C., 2020. "Productivity spillovers and human capital: A semiparametric varying coefficient approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 287(1), pages 317-330.
    22. Li, Xiang & Su, Dan, 2022. "Total factor productivity growth at the firm-level: The effects of capital account liberalization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    23. ArÅ«nas Burinskas & ArÅ«nas Burinskas & Rasmus Bøgh Holmen & Manuela TvaronaviÄ ienÄ— & AgnÄ— Å imelytÄ— & Kristina RazminienÄ—, 2021. "FDI, technology & knowledge transfer from Nordic to Baltic countries," Insights into Regional Development, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 3(3), pages 31-55, September.
    24. Man Jin & Huiting Tian & Subal C. Kumbhakar, 2020. "How to survive and compete: the impact of information asymmetry on productivity," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 107-123, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    multinationals; competition; technology; selection; FDI; TFP;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F36 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Financial Aspects of Economic Integration
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance

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