Domestic Jobs and Foreign Wages: Labour Demand in Swedish Multinationals

The labour demand decisions of multinational corporations (MNCs) are likely to depend not only on domestic, but also on foreign labour costs. This paper tests this hypothesis by estimating labour demand equations for a sample of Swedish MNCs. Indeed, higher foreign costs increase an MNC's Swedish employment and reduces its foregin employment. As MNCs become more important in many OECD countries, the role of foreign labour costs in the determination of aggregate domestic employment is likley to increase.

Foreign Direct Investment

This paper argues that the liberalisation of foregin direct investment (FDI) has made labour costs more important to domestic investment and long-run labour demand. It provides evidence from British and German data that is consistent with this view. First, high unit labour costs increase FDI outflows and lower FDI inflows. Second, the effect of unit labour costs on domestic manufacturing investment was more negative in the high-FDI 1980s than in the low-FDI 1970s, and this change was concentrated in high-FDI industries. The implied effect on long-run labour demand is substantial.