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Does Inward Foreign Direct Investment Boost the Productivity of Domestic Firms?

Author Info

Listed author(s):
  • Jonathan E. Haskel

    (Queen Mary, University of London)

  • Sonia C. Pereira

    (University College London)

  • Matthew J. Slaughter

    (Dartmouth College and NBER)

Abstract

Are there productivity spillovers from FDI to domestic firms, and, if so, how much should host countries be willing to pay to attract FDI? To examine these questions we use a plant-level panel covering U.K. manufacturing from 1973 through 1992. Across a wide range of specifications, we estimate a significantly positive correlation between a domestic plant's TFP and the foreign-affiliate share of activity in that plant's industry. This is consistent with positive FDI spillovers. We do not generally find significant effects on plant TFP of the foreign-affiliate share of activity in that plant's region. Typical estimates suggest that a 10 percentage-point increase in foreign presence in a U.K. industry raises the TFP of that industry's domestic plants by about 0.5 percent. We also use these estimates to calculate the per-job value of these spillovers. These calculated values appear to be less than per-job incentives governments have granted in recent high-profile cases, in some cases several times less.

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File URL: http://www.econ.qmul.ac.uk/papers/doc/wp452.pdf
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Paper provided by Queen Mary University of London, School of Economics and Finance in its series Working Papers with number 452.

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Date of creation: Feb 2002
Handle: RePEc:qmw:qmwecw:wp452
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Keywords: Multinational firms; Foreign direct investment; Productivity spillovers;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • F2 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business
  • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance

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