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Do Workers Benefit from Foreign Ownership? Evidence from Swedish manufacturing

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  • Bandick, Roger

    (ESI)

Abstract

The paper examines whether foreign-owned firms pay higher wages than domestically owned firms, controlling for a number of firm characteristics. As in most other similar studies I find that this appears to be the case. In particular, skilled labor seems to profit from working in foreign-owned firms. Furthermore, I distinguish between Swedish multinational enterprises (MNEs) and other domestically owned firms. In accordance with the idea that MNEs are superior to other firms the former pays significantly higher wages than other domestically owned firms. Foreigners acquiring high-wage Swedish MNEs may thus account for the higher wages in foreign-owned firms. Alternatively, the acquired firms might have more favorable wage growth than non-targeted domestically owned firms. Nevertheless, the two explanations are not mutually exclusive I only get support for that foreign firms select high-wage firms (Swedish MNEs as well as non-MNEs) for acquisition.

Suggested Citation

  • Bandick, Roger, 2004. "Do Workers Benefit from Foreign Ownership? Evidence from Swedish manufacturing," Working Paper Series 201, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:fiefwp:0201
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. Lundborg, Per, 2005. "Wage Fairness, Growth and the Utilization of R&D Workers," Working Paper Series 206, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    3. Lundborg, Per, 2005. "Wage Theories for the Swedish Labour Market," Working Paper Series 207, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Mojtaba Hajian Heidary, 2022. "A system dynamics model of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and foreign direct investment in the global supply chain," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, December.
    5. Ding, Ding, 2015. "Leaning from multinational companies through hiring: An empirical investigation," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 402, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    6. Lejour, Arjan & Rojas Romasgosa, Hugo & Rodriguez, Victor & Montalvo, Carvos & Van der Zee, Frans, 2009. "Trade costs, Openness and Productivity: Market Access at Home and Abroad," MPRA Paper 21214, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Bandick, Roger & Hansson, Pär, 2005. "Inward FDI and demand for skills in Sweden," Working Papers 2005:10, Örebro University, School of Business.
    8. Roger Bandick, 2007. "Multinationals and plant survival in Swedish manufacturing," Discussion Papers 07/31, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    9. Lejárraga,Iza & Ragoussis,Alexandros, 2018. "Beyond Capital : Monitoring Development Outcomes of Multinational Enterprises," Policy Research Working Paper Series 8686, The World Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Wage differentials; Multinational enterprises; Foreign ownership;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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