IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/csl/devewp/166.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Foreign Ownership and Productivity: is the Direction of Causality so Obvious?

Author

Listed:
  • Luigi Benfratello

    (Ceris-Cnr)

  • Alessandro Sembenelli

    (University of Torino)

Abstract

No abstract is available for this item.

Suggested Citation

  • Luigi Benfratello & Alessandro Sembenelli, 2002. "Foreign Ownership and Productivity: is the Direction of Causality so Obvious?," Development Working Papers 166, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    • Handle: RePEc:csl:devewp:166
    Note: The purpose of this paper is to estimate the e¤ect of foreign ownership on productivity under reasonable identification assumptions. In particular we estimate dynamic Cobb-Douglas production functions augmented with a set of variables capturing complementary characteristics of foreign ownership. We apply the GMM- System estimator developed by Blundell and Bond (1998) to a large sample of firms located in Italy. Our aggregate findings suggest that after controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, simultaneity and measurement errors, foreign ownership has no effect on productivity. Therefore we do not find widespread empirical support to the standard internalization theory of foreign direct investment. However, we also find that nationality matters since firms under US ownership tend to be more productive than firms under national ownership. In turn this additional result suggests that the transfer of knowledge implied by the internalization theory occurs only if the difference between the recipient and the investment country is suffciently pronounced.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.dagliano.unimi.it/media/WP2002_166.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James R. Tybout, 2000. "Manufacturing Firms in Developing Countries: How Well Do They Do, and Why?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 11-44, March.
    2. Alessandro Sembenelli & Georges Siotis, 2002. "Foreign Direct Investment, Competitive Pressure and Spillovers. An Empirical Analysis on Spanish Firm Level Data," Development Working Papers 169, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    3. Rachel Griffith, 1999. "Using the ARD establishment level data to look at foreign ownership and productivity in the UK," IFS Working Papers W99/06, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    4. Griffith, Rachel, 1999. "Using the ARD Establishment Level Data to Look at Foreign Ownership and Productivity in the United Kingdom," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(456), pages 416-442, June.
    5. Vella, Francis & Verbeek, Marno, 1999. "Estimating and Interpreting Models with Endogenous Treatment Effects," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 17(4), pages 473-478, October.
    6. Richard Blundell & Stephen Bond & Frank Windmeijer, 2000. "Estimation in dynamic panel data models: improving on the performance of the standard GMM estimator," IFS Working Papers W00/12, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    7. Heckman, James J, 1978. "Dummy Endogenous Variables in a Simultaneous Equation System," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(4), pages 931-959, July.
    8. Richard Blundell & Stephen Bond, 2000. "GMM Estimation with persistent panel data: an application to production functions," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 321-340.
    9. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    10. 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.
    11. Mark E. Doms & J . Bradford Jensen, 1998. "Comparing Wages, Skills, and Productivity between Domestically and Foreign-Owned Manufacturing Establishments in the United States," NBER Chapters, in: Geography and Ownership as Bases for Economic Accounting, pages 235-258, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Davies, Stephen W & Lyons, Bruce R, 1991. "Characterising Relative Performance: The Productivity Advantage of Foreign Owned Firms in the UK," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 43(4), pages 584-595, October.
    13. Steven Globerman & John C. Ries & Ilan Vertinsky, 1994. "The Economic Performance of Foreign Affiliates in Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 27(1), pages 143-156, February.
    14. Martin J. Conyon & Sourafel Girma & Steve Thompson & Peter W. Wright, 2002. "The productivity and wage effects of foreign acquisition in the United Kingdom," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 85-102, March.
    15. 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.
    16. Robert E. Baldwin & Robert E. Lipsey & J. David Richardson, 1998. "Geography and Ownership as Bases for Economic Accounting," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number bald98-1, March.
    17. Rachel Griffith, 1999. "Productivity and foreign ownership in the UK car industry," IFS Working Papers W99/11, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    18. Harris, Richard D, 2002. "Foreign Ownership and Productivity in the United Kingdom--Some Issues When Using the ARD Establishment Level Data," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 49(3), pages 318-335, August.
    19. Richard Harris, 2002. "Foreign Ownership and Productivity in the United Kingdom—Some Issues When Using the ARD Establishment Level Data," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 49(3), pages 318-335, August.
    20. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    21. Richard Harris & Catherine Robinson, 2003. "Foreign Ownership and Productivity in the United Kingdom Estimates for U.K. Manufacturing Using the ARD," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 22(3), pages 207-223, May.
    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. David Greenaway & Alessandra Guariglia & Zhihong Yu, 2014. "The more the better? Foreign ownership and corporate performance in China," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(7-9), pages 681-702, September.
    2. Christian Bellak, 2004. "How Domestic and Foreign Firms Differ and Why Does it Matter?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 483-514, September.
    3. Arnold, Jens Matthias & Javorcik, Beata Smarzynska, 2005. "Gifted kids or pushy parents? Foreign acquisitions and plant performance in Indonesia," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3597, The World Bank.
    4. Sourafel Girma & Holger Görg, 2016. "Multinationals’ Productivity Advantage: Scale Or Technology?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND HOST COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT Volume 53: World Scientific Studies in International Economics, chapter 1, pages 3-15, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Uppenberg, Kristian & Riess, Armin, 2004. "Determinants and growth effects of foreign direct investment," EIB Papers 3/2004, European Investment Bank, Economics Department.
    6. Girma, Sourafel & Görg, Holger, 2001. "Blessing or Curse? Domestic Plants' Survival and Employment Prospects After Foreign Acquisition," CEPR Discussion Papers 2994, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Giorgio Barba Navaretti & Daniele Checchi & Alessandro Turrini, 2003. "Adjusting Labor Demand: Multinational Versus National Firms: A Cross-European Analysis," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 1(2-3), pages 708-719, 04/05.
    8. Harris, Richard & Moffat, John, 2011. "Plant-level determinants of total factor productivity in Great Britain, 1997-2006," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 33561, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Neil Foster-McGregor, 2012. "Innovation and Technology Transfer across Countries," wiiw Research Reports 380, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    10. Harris, Richard, 2009. "Spillover and backward linkage effects of FDI: empirical evidence for the UK," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 33206, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Heyman, Fredrik & Sjoholm, Fredrik & Tingvall, Patrik Gustavsson, 2007. "Is there really a foreign ownership wage premium? Evidence from matched employer-employee data," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 355-376, November.
    12. Richard Harris & John Moffat, 2015. "Plant-level determinants of total factor productivity in Great Britain, 1997–2008," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 1-20, August.
    13. Chiara Criscuolo & Ralf Martin, 2009. "Multinationals and U.S. Productivity Leadership: Evidence from Great Britain," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(2), pages 263-281, May.
    14. Girma, Sourafel & Görg, Holger, 2002. "Foreign Ownership, Returns to Scale and Productivity: Evidence from UK Manufacturing Establishments," CEPR Discussion Papers 3503, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Kolasa Marcin, 2008. "How does FDI inflow affect productivity of domestic firms? The role of horizontal and vertical spillovers, absorptive capacity and competition," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(1), pages 155-173.
    16. Noor Aini Khalifah & Radziah Adam, 2009. "Productivity Spillovers from FDI in Malaysian Manufacturing: Evidence from Micro‐panel Data," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 143-167, June.
    17. Sourafel Girma & Steve Thompson & Peter W. Wright, 2002. "Why are Productivity and Wages Higher in Foreign Firms?," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 33(1), pages 93-100.
    18. Driffield Nigel & Temouri Yama, 2014. "Inward Investment and the Drivers of Post Recession Recovery in Germany," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 234(6), pages 775-799, December.
    19. Richard Harris & Catherine Robinson, 2003. "Foreign Ownership and Productivity in the United Kingdom Estimates for U.K. Manufacturing Using the ARD," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 22(3), pages 207-223, May.
    20. Robert E. Lipsey, 2002. "Home and Host Country Effects of FDI," NBER Working Papers 9293, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    multinational firms; total factor productivity; panel data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • 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:csl:devewp:166. 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: Chiara Elli (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/damilit.html .

    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.