Affiliate Activity in Japanese and U.S. Multinationals and Japanese Exports, 1986-1995

This study examines the relationship between Japan's manufactured exports to individual markets and the economic activities of foreign manufacturing affiliates of Japanese multinational corporations (MNCs) and U.S. MNCs in those markets. First, the relationships between Japanese export levels and employment in foreign affiliates of Japanese MNCs are analyzed in the context of a typical gravity model explaining the cross-country variation of Japan's manufacturing exports. Second, the paper examines the effects of the presence of affiliates of U.S. MNCs on Japanese export levels. And third, it analyzes the relation of changes in Japanese exports to levels of and changes in employment in Japanese and U.S. MNC affiliates. The level of Japan's manufactured exports to a country is almost always positively related to employment in foreign manufacturing affiliates of Japanese MNCs there. There is no evidence that Japanese-owned host country production replaces Japanese exports. However, production by U.S. MNC affiliates in a country often tends to reduce Japanese exports to that market. In some industries and periods, the initial level of Japanese affiliate employment, or changes in Japanese affiliate employment, are positively and significantly correlated with changes in Japan's exports, and there are no cases of significant negative relationships. The predominant effect of U.S. affiliates' presence on changes in Japanese exports to a country is negative, but the evidence for that effect is not strong.

Trade, Foreign Firms, and Economic Policy in Indonesian and Thai Manufacturing

This paper first examines the rapid growth and changing composition of manufactured exports in Indonesia and Thailand, highlighting the rapid growth of office and computer machinery and electric machinery, somewhat slower growth of non-electric and transportation machinery, as well as the low growth of previously large exports of textiles apparel. Second, the important contributions of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) to export growth in the machinery industries, particularly in electric, office, and computing machinery, are documented. Third, the paper describes trade policies in all these industries in some detail, emphasizing how low protection was a key facilitator of rapid export growth in the MNEs that dominated the electric, office, and computing machinery industry, while high protection reduced incentives to export among MNEs in the transportation machinery industry.

Outward FDI and Parent Exports and Employment: Japan, the United States, and Sweden

Within Japanese multinational firms, parent exports from Japan to a foreign region are positively related to production in that region by affiliates of that parent, given the parent's home production in Japan and the region's size and income level. This relationship is similar to that found for Swedish and U.S. multinationals in parallel studies. A Japanese parent's worldwide exports tend to be larger, relative to its output, the larger the firm's overseas production. In this respect also, Japanese firms resembled U.S. multinationals. A Japanese parent's employment, given the level of its production, tends to be higher, the greater the production abroad by the firm's foreign affiliates. Japanese firms' behavior in this respect is similar to that of Swedish firms, but contrasts with that of U.S. firms. U.S. firms appear to reduce employment at home, relative to production, by allocating labor-intensive parts of their production to affiliates in developing countries. Swedish firms seem to allocate the more capital-intensive parts of their production to their foreign affiliates, mostly in high-wage countries. We conclude that in Japanese firms and ancillary employment at home to service foreign operations outweighs any allocation of labor-intensive production to developing countries.

Foreign Workers, Foreign Multinationals, and Wages after Controlling for Occupation and Sex in Malaysia’s Manufacturing Plants during the mid-1990s

This paper investigates the effects of foreign worker shares and MNE ownership on wages after controlling for worker sex and occupation in Malaysian manufacturing plants during 1994-1996, an important period during which use of foreign workers began to increase substantially. In a previous paper, I estimated similar wage equations separately for five occupation groups of both sexes in large heterogeneous samples of plants in many industries and more homogeneous samples of plants in seven industries. Results indicated that use of foreign workers generally had insignificant effects on plant wages for most occupation-sex-(and industry) combinations and that that MNE-local differentials were almost always insignificant in three industries and consistently significant in only one. Although separate estimation by sex and occupation has the strong advantage of accounting for worker characteristics relatively well, it has the disadvantages of complexity (10 results per sample) and being difficult to compare to more common approaches, which use sex and occupation as controls. The primary purpose of this paper is thus to see if using sex and occupation as independent variables generates results that differ from estimating wage equations separately for each sex-occupation cohort. Results suggest that the effects of foreign worker shares differ substantially among foreign worker occupations and among industries. Plants that have relatively large foreign manager shares tend to pay relatively high wages in most industries, but the effects of other foreign worker occupations are usually insignificant or inconsistent. Results that assume all foreign workers impart the same effects thus appear misleading, as do results assuming identical slope coefficients among industries. Similar to previous estimates, MNE-local wage differentials were consistently positive and significant in only two relatively small industries, chemicals and food, in marked contrast to previous results for 2000-2004, which did not account for the effects of foreign worker shares

Foreign Multinationals and Vietnamese Firm Exports, 2010-2013

This paper examines the role foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) played in Vietnamese firm exports during 2010-2013. Consistent with patterns observed in commodity export data, MNEs are found to account for the majority of firm exports during this period. Wholly-foreign MNEs (WFs), which accounted for the vast majority of MNE production in Vietnam, accounted for most MNE exports. Both WFs and MNE joint ventures (JV) made larger direct contributions to exports than to production or employment, as observed in other Asian developing economies. There was a strong tendency for WFs to have the highest export propensities (export-turnover ratios) followed by JVs. Manufacturing firms exported over four-fifths of the total in most years. Tobit estimates that controlled for the effects of firm size, capital intensity, liquidity, location, and industry affiliation for manufacturers indicate WFs also had the highest conditional export propensities, followed by JVs, private firms, while export propensities tended to be similar in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private firms in most industries. Because Vietnam imposes few ownership restrictions on MNEs, these results imply that MNEs generally prefer to export from WFs rather than JVs, and are consistent with previous results for Thailand and Indonesia, for example

Multinational Enterprise Growth and Vietnam\u27s Employment and Wages in Manufacturing and Trade Industries: Did Takeovers Play a Role?

This paper examines how foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) have grown in Vietnam’s manufacturing and trade industries, and tries to shed light on how MNE takeovers of Vietnamese firms have affected employment, and wages between 2000 and 2012. Although the scale of MNE activity has been substantial and grown in recent years, there are substantial discrepancies in measures of MNE shares from alternative sources and uncertainty over the actual share of MNEs in Vietnamese production or employment. On the other hand, the number of MNE takeovers has been very small and they appear to have played only a small role in changes of MNE shares. Rather, changes in MNE shares have resulted primarily from the entry and exit MNEs and changes in the scale of MNE activity

Experiences with Foreign Workers in Singapore and Malaysia: What are the Lessons for Japan\u27s Labor Markets?

Singapore and Malaysia have a long history of relying heavily on foreign, immigrant workers in both high-skilled and low-skilled occupations. Ancestors of large portions of the local population in both countries were also immigrants. Correspondingly, economic policies have been designed to manage high levels of migration and foreign workers. In contrast, Japan limited both immigration and foreign workers quite strictly through the 1980s. Since the 1990s, however, the ratio of the stock of net inward immigrants to total population has grown much more rapidly in Japan than in Singapore or Malaysia, largely because the rapidly aging population and changes in worker preferences have resulted in strong demand for immigrant labor. Since the 1990s, Japanese policies have actively sought to entice highly skilled foreign workers and students to work and/or study in Japan. The primary purpose of this policy-oriented paper is to review the substantial economic literature on experiences with foreign workers in Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia and its implications for Japan’s labor markets and related policies

How important are SOEs and MNEs in Vietnam’s economy?

This paper examines patterns and changes of shares of the state sector, including stateowned enterprises (SOEs) and other state entities, and foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Vietnam since the mid-1990s. Because most Vietnamese are still self-employed or household workers with little or no connection to the state sector or MNEs, it is important to exclude the household sector from these comparisons. First, ownership shares vary markedly among economic activities. For example, economy-wide estimates indicate that MNEs and state sector have both been relatively small employers, but larger producers. MNEs have also become by far the largest exporters. Second, ownership shares and their trends vary substantially depending on the data source. Most conspicuously, SOE shares of nonhousehold enterprise employment and sales have decreased rapidly since 2000. On the other hand, economy-wide estimates of state shares in non-household employment and GDP declined much more slowly. Recent discrepancies between these estimates have become so large that they almost certainly result from errors in one or more data sources. There are also smaller discrepancies between corresponding, alternative estimates of MNE shares. The extent of privatization of SOEs and its economic effects are thus ambiguous in Vietnam, creating important concerns for academics and policy makers

Foreign Workers, Foreign Multinationals, and Wages after Controlling for Occupation and Sex in Malaysia’s Manufacturing Plants during the mid-1990s

This paper investigates the effects of foreign worker shares and MNE ownership on wages after controlling for worker sex and occupation in Malaysian manufacturing plants during 1994-1996, an important period during which use of foreign workers began to increase substantially. In a previous paper, I estimated similar wage equations separately for five occupation groups of both sexes in large heterogeneous samples of plants in many industries and more homogeneous samples of plants in seven industries. Results indicated that use of foreign workers generally had insignificant effects on plant wages for most occupation-sex-(and industry) combinations and that that MNE-local differentials were almost always insignificant in three industries and consistently significant in only one. Although separate estimation by sex and occupation has the strong advantage of accounting for worker characteristics relatively well, it has the disadvantages of complexity (10 results per sample) and being difficult to compare to more common approaches, which use sex and occupation as controls. The primary purpose of this paper is thus to see if using sex and occupation as independent variables generates results that differ from estimating wage equations separately for each sex-occupation cohort. Results suggest that the effects of foreign worker shares differ substantially among foreign worker occupations and among industries. Plants that have relatively large foreign manager shares tend to pay relatively high wages in most industries, but the effects of other foreign worker occupations are usually insignificant or inconsistent. Results that assume all foreign workers impart the same effects thus appear misleading, as do results assuming identical slope coefficients among industries. Similar to previous estimates, MNE-local wage differentials were consistently positive and significant in only two relatively small industries, chemicals and food, in marked contrast to previous results for 2000-2004, which did not account for the effects of foreign worker shares