From learning to partnership : multinational research and development cooperation in developing countries

The authors analyze the determinants of interfirm agreements between industrial and developing countries for research and development (R&D) - that is, between firms with asymmetric endowments of knowledge. They develop a model in which a multinational has two options: a) setting up a subsidiary and competing with a local firm in a duopoly, or b) implementing an agreement and sharing monopoly profits. The two firms, if they chose the agreement, may also cooperate in R&D. The model shows that: a) the choice of cooperating in R&D is influenced by the intertemporal preferences of the developing country firm, the relative efficiency in R&D of the two firms, and the extent of knowledge spillovers; and b) the choice of cooperating R&D increases both the profitability and stability of the agreement. The empirical analysis is based on a data set of international arm's length agreements, part of which involve joint R&D. Testing the two-choice model supports some of the key theoretical results and assumptions. R&D agreements are particularly likely to emerge when firms are operating in knowledge-intensive industries, when the partners have a nonhierarchical contractual relationship, and when technological asymmetries between home and host countries exist but are not too great.Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Scientific Research&Science Parks,Environmental Economics&Policies,Small and Medium Size Enterprises,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Scientific Research&Science Parks,Science Education,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems

Introduction and summary to the Handbook of Trade Policy and WTO Accession for Development in Russia and the CIS

This paper is the introduction and summary chapter of the 43 chapter volume entitled Handbook of Trade Policy and WTO Accession for Development in Russia and the CIS. The key policy conclusions of each of the chapters are highlighted in this paper. The Handbook will be published only in Russian in 2005, but an English language version of the majority of the papers described here is available on the website www.worldbank.org/trade/russia-wto. This paper first explains the potential importance of World Trade Organization (WTO) accession as a development tool, and discusses the recent successful development models and the role of trade policy in their development. The paper then summarizes the three parts of the Handbook. The first part treats trade policy (with applications to Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States [CIS]). The second part treats World Trade Organization institutions and disciplines, again with Russia and CIS applications. And the third part focuses on various aspects of the impact of WTO accession on Russia. The numerous papers that relate trade policy and WTO accession to experience in Russia and the CIS are likely to be of special interest to native English speakers, since these papers are new to the literature. The papers in the Handbook are intended to be non-technical materials accessible to a wide policy audience. The Handbook forms the basis of a World Bank Institute course on trade policy and WTO accession, which has been delivered and will be delivered again on multiple occasions.TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Trade Policy,World Trade Organization

Investments Abroad and Performance at Home Evidence from Italian Multinationals

Foreign activities of MNEs have important effects on home economies. The debate is ambiguous: concerns that foreign investments deplete domestic economies are often coupled with the pride for doing good business in foreign countries. This paper addresses this question by defining the appropriate counterfactual: what would have happened to investing firms if they had not invested abroad. It applies propensity score matching to derive these hypothetical performance trajectories from a sample of national firms which never invested abroad. For a sample of Italian firms, it finds that investments improves growth of total factor productivity and output. It also finds no significant effects on employment. These results support the view that foreign investments strengthen rather than depleting home activities.multinational firms, productivity, propensity score matching

Adjusting Labour Demand: Multinationals vs. National Firms: A Cross-European Analysis

This paper provides a cross-country perspective to the firm-level analysis of the relation between foreign ownership and labour demand. We estimate labour demand equations in eleven European countries using dynamic panel data techniques on samples that permit to distinguish the ownership status of firms. We find that the employment adjustment is significantly faster in MNEs’ affiliates, irrespective of the country investigated. As for the wage elasticity of labour demand, MNEs show smaller elasticities compared with national firms, and very little variation across countries. Crosscountry correlations show that the relative value of wage elasticities in MNEs on that in NEs is positively related to country-level indexes of labour market regulation (employment protection, union presence,...). We interpret the results as follows. MNEs tend to have a more rigid demand for total labour (possibly due to a different skill composition). However, being MNEs relatively “footloose”, this difference tends to vanish as the rigidity of employment regulations rises.Multinational firms, labour demand elasticity, employment adjustment costs

The Impact of Trade Liberalisation on Enterprises in Small Backward Economies: The Case of Chad and Gabon

This paper examines the impact of trade and fiscal reforms and of the 1994 devaluation of the CFA franc on enterprise development in Chad and Gabon. These reforms provide a natural experiment to assess the impact of trade liberalisation in countries with a small and backward manufacturing sector. The empirical analysis is based on a new panel data base covering virtually the whole population of manufacturing firms in Chad and Gabon, and containing data spanning from the year before to two years after the reforms. The paper finds that although firms’ response to changing incentives was non-negligible, with a shift of output from non tradable to tradable and an increase in productivity, the reform process was unable to generate a virtuous and self-sustained circle, where export expansion brings a generalized productivity increase which in turn feeds on further export growth.trade liberalization; enterprise development; output, productivity and export performance

Do Not Get Trapped into Crossing: Indian Firms and Foreign Markets

This paper examines the relationship between the exposure to foreign trade and productivity growth for a sample of Indian manufacturing firms. By testing a catching up model of productivity growth, it sheds some light on the nature of the relationship between the exposure to foreign competition and productivity growth. It finds a non linear relationship between firms’ export share and productivity gains. Productivity growth declines with the share of exports on total sales, up to a threshold ranging between 40 and 50 per cent and it increases thereafter. This result appears to be dominated by the behaviour of firms in traditional sectors like textile and clothing. In more technology intensive sectors, like pharmaceuticals, productivity gains also arise for smaller export shares. One likely explanation of this finding is that being successful in the export market for exporters of traditional products also requires investments in technological upgrading. These investments are less likely to be viable for marginal exporters. In fact, firms with a larger than 50 percent share of exports are also found to be more capital intensive and to use newer machinery than non exporters or marginal exporters. In contrast we find that human capital is not significantly different for different categories of firms.India, productivity, exports, firm level performance

Does Family Control Affect Trade Performance? Evidence for Italian Firms

This paper examines whether the export decision of firms is affected by their ownership structure, specifically it looks at whether family control is an obstacle to entering foreign markets. The underlying assumption is that family firms are risk averse. Risk aversion may be an obstacle to entering foreign markets, as far as these are perceived as more volatile and risky than the domestic one, particularly when such choice entices bearing relatively high sunk costs. We develop an illustrative theoretical model that shows how the combination between high risk aversion and low initial productivity may hinder family firms' decision to enter foreign markets, particularly distant ones. The empirical analysis, based on a detailed panel data set of Italian firms covering the years from 1995 to 2003, confirms such predictions by showing that family controlled firms do indeed export less than other type of companies even after controlling for firm heterogeneity in productivity, size, technology and access to credit.firm structure, foreign markets, family firms, exports

Offshoring and Immigrant Employment: Firm-level Theory and Evidence

We propose and solve a simple model of firm-level decisions to offshore production stages of lower skill intensity than that of activities that remain in the domestic location. In theory, offshoring is optimal only for the more productive among heterogeneous firms if it entails a fixed cost. In a large sample of Italian firms, offshoring - especially of intermediate production stages - is indeed more prevalent among firms that are larger and more productive, and is predicted by arguably relevant firm-level characteristics. We also document that offshoring decreases the share of unskilled employment in domestic production facilities as well as firms’ propensity to employ immigrant workers, and we discuss the possible determinants and policy implication of the latter finding.

Does Family Control Affect Trade Performance? Evidence for Italian Firms

This paper examines whether the export decision of firms is affected by their ownership structure, specifically it looks at whether family control is an obstacle to entering foreign markets. The underlying assumption is that family firms are risk averse. Risk aversion may be an obstacle to entering foreign markets, as far as these are perceived as more volatile and risky than the domestic one, particularly when such choice entices bearing relatively high sunk costs. We develop an illustrative theoretical model that shows how the combination between high risk aversion and low initial productivity may hinder family firms’ decision to enter foreign markets, particularly distant ones. The empirical analysis, based on a detailed panel data set of Italian firms covering the years from 1995 to 2003, confirms such predictions by showing that family controlled firms do indeed export less than other type of companies even after controlling for firm heterogeneity in productivity, size, technology and access to credit.