Optimal geographic diversification and firm performance:evidence from the U.K.

This paper examines the relationship between multinationality and firm performance. The analysis is based on a sample of over 400 UK multinationals, and encompasses both service sector and manufacturing sector multinationals. This paper confirms the non-linear relationship between performance and multinationality that is reported elsewhere in the literature, but offers further analysis of this relationship. Specifically, by correcting for endogeneity in the investment decision, and for shocks in productivity across countries, the paper demonstrates that the returns to multinationality are greater than those that have been reported elsewhere, and persist to higher degrees of international diversification

Can education compensate for low ability? Evidence from British data

This article investigates whether the returns to education vary with the level of cognitive ability. Unlike much of the literature, this article finds that the return to schooling is lower for those with higher cognitive ability indicating that education can act as a substitute for observed ability. Using quantile regressions we also find that, again unlike most of the literature, returns are higher at lower quintiles of the conditional earnings distribution. This suggests that education is also a substitute for unobserved ability. The policy implications are that increasing education in general and particularly for those with lower ability should reduce income inequality

Estimation in nonparametric location-scale regression models with censored data

Bandwidth, Bootstrap, Kernel estimation, Nonparametric regression, Right censoring, Survival analysis,

The Role of the Efficiency Gap for Spillovers from FDI: Evidence from the UK Electronics and Engineering Sectors

This paper focuses on the role of the efficiency gap in determining whether or not domestic firms benefit from productivity spillovers from FDI. We use establishment level data for the period 1980–1992 for the UK. Given that there is substantial heterogeneity of productivity across sectors we focus on two manufacturing sectors in detail, namely, electronics and engineering. We allow for different effects of FDI on establishments located at different quantiles of the productivity distribution by using conditional quantile regression. Overall, while there is some heterogeneity in results across sectors and quantiles, our findings clearly suggest that the efficiency gap matters for productivity spillover benefits. We find evidence for a u-shaped relationship between productivity growth and FDI interacted with the efficiency gap. We also analyse in some detail the impact of changes in relative efficiency on establishments’ ability to benefit from spillovers. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007Foreign direct investment, Efficiency gap, Productivity spillovers, Quantile regressions, F21, F23,

Employment Effects of Privatisation and Foreign Acquisition of Chinese State‐owned Enterprises

Abstract This paper investigates the effects of domestic privatisation or foreign acquisition of Chinese State‐owned Enterprises (SOEs) on employment growth, using firm level data for China and a combination of propensity score matching and difference‐in‐differences in order to identify the causal effect. Our results suggest that, controlling for output growth there is some evidence that domestic privatisation leads to contemporaneous reductions in employment growth compared to firms that did not undergo an ownership change. By contrast, there is some evidence that foreign acquisitions show higher employment growth in the post acquisition period than non‐acquired SOEs.FDI, Privatisation, Labour Demanding, Matching, China, F23, J23, L33,