Changing Economic Geography and Vertical Linkages in Japan

In Japan, the manufacturing has become geographically dispersed in the 1990s, when the import share has risen after the historic exchange rate appreciation. As is consistent with the interpretation that import penetration undermines regional input-output linkages, our regressions detect the significant decline of industrial concentrations previously established near output absorbers, especially in industries with high import share growths. This paper also finds that local knowledge spillovers and immobile specialized labor affect regional growth. Thus, while regional demand of tradable outputs matters less, regional supply of inputs, especially non-tradable inputs, remains critical for manufacturing locations.

Foreign Outsourcing, Exporting, and FDI: A Productivity Comparison at the Firm Level

This paper compares the productivity of firms active in foreign outsourcing, exporting, foreign direct investment, or only in domestic operations by a firm-level data of more than 118 thousand Japanese manufacturers. Only a small fraction of firms outsource, export, or invest across borders. The group averages, inter-firm distributions, regressions controlling for industry-effects, and multinomial response models unanimously demonstrate that FDI firms are distinctively more productive than foreign outsourcing firms, which are equally productive as exporters and are clearly more productive than domestic firms. Productive, innovative, or computerized firms are likely to globalize. The firms outsourcing overseas are particularly labor-intensive.Productivity; Firm-level data; Exporter; Foreign outsourcing; FDI

Firm-Level Relationship between Technological Capability and Foreign Direct Investment

This paper reexamines the relationship between FDI and R&D by exploiting firm-level data for 118,300 Japanese manufacturers with no threshold. Our study confirms that the positive association between FDI and R&D is robust even if firms undertaking no FDI and/or no R&D are included. The inclusion of such firms, however, substantially attenuates the relationship. Higher technological capability is positively related with more extensive FDI, especially FDI in industrial countries by firms that have invested in Asia. Firms rich in human skills tend to prefer majority ownership in FDI, as predicted by the internalization FDI theory.

Foreign outsourcing and firm-level characteristics: evidence from Japanese manufacturers

Based on micro data of 118,300 firms without firm-size thresholds covering all manufacturing industries in Japan, this paper investigates the foreign outsourcing, distinguished explicitly from domestic outsourcing, at the firm level. Less than three percent of the firms are outsourcing their production across national borders. The fixed entry cost for foreign outsourcing is significant and related with the firm's human skills and foreign business experience. The firms tend to outsource more of their activities overseas when their productivity is higher or when their products are more labor-intensive.Foreign outsourcing, Firm-level data, Productivity, Capital-labor ratio

Changing economic geography and vertical linkages in Japan

In Japan, the manufacturing has become geographically dispersed in the 1990s, when the import has drastically increased after the historic exchange rate appreciation. This suggests the possibility that regional input-output linkages are undermined by import penetration. The regression results indicate the decline of industrial concentrations, particularly those previously established near large output absorbers. This paper also finds that local knowledge spillovers and availability of immobile specialized labor affect regional growth. These imply that the geography matters for industrial locations rather through the supply of inputs, especially non-tradable inputs, than through the demand for tradable outputs.