Multinational firms, productivity and employment

Over the last three decades foreign direct investment (FDI) has become the most visible driver of globalisation. It has grown faster than world output and international trade and now reports world annual flows exceeding 1,000 billion US dollars. In this period, Germany has undergone significant changes in order to play an important role in the globalisation process. Apart from being a member state of the European Union (EU) whose key feature is the free flow of trade, investment and labour, the re-unification of East and West Germany in 1990 has been a significant development. This in effect has meant that East Germany as well as other Eastern European nations opened up to foreign investment for the first time. In this period, Germany has attracted in excess of 10 per cent of inward FDI into the EU and invested around 15 per cent of all FDI in the EU. This thesis explores empirically the potential impact of FDI on firms operating in and investing from Germany over a ten year period. Using panel data at the firm-level it concentrates on three areas relating to FDI. Firstly, it considers whether foreign-owned firms are more productive than German multinational firms and German non-multinational firms. Secondly, the thesis considers the impact of German investments abroad on domestic productivity. Finally, employment effects emanating from outward high-tech FDI are estimated for the leading OECD (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, namely Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Japan. The findings of the first analysis indicate that while foreign-owned firms are generally more productive than German non-multinationals, there is no clear cut difference between foreign-owned firms and German multinationals. These differences would not have been uncovered, had the analysis compared foreign firms with all domestic firms. Equally, location within Germany is also important, as this productivity gap is more pronounced for firms which are located in the Eastern states. The findings of the second analysis suggest that engaging in outward FDI has an overall positive effect on the parent firm's productivity at home. Finally, results of the third analysis show that an expansion of high-tech offshoring activities by OECD multinationals (MNEs) is not associated with any reduction in employment at home

Self-Selection into Export Markets by Business Services Firms: Evidence from France, Germany and the United Kingdom

This study reports results from an empirical investigation of business services sector firms that (start to) export, comparing exporters to firms that serve the national market only. We estimate identically specified empirical models using comparable enterprise level data from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Exporters are more productive and pay higher wages on average in all three countries. Results for profitability differ across borders – profitability of exporters is significantly smaller in Germany, significantly larger in France, and does not differ significantly in the UK. The results for wages and productivity hold in the years before the export start, which indicates self-selection into exporting of more productive services firms that pay higher wages. The surprising finding of self-selection of less profitable German business services firms into exporting does not show up among firms from France and the UK where no statistically significant relationship between profitability and starting to export is found.business services firms, exports, self-selection, France, Germany, UK

The global recession and the shift to re-shoring:Myth or reality?

Despite the high degree of attention that re-shoring has recently attracted in the media, we lack detailed understanding of the drivers of such an important strategic change by a multinational enterprise (MNE). We offer the first large-scale analysis of the factors that influence a firm's decision to re-shore. Our analysis is based on 3683 MNEs from 14 developed countries investing in 66 host countries over the period 2006–2013. Our results suggest that increased re-shoring was triggered by the downturn in the West resulting from the recent global financial crisis. However, our results show that the effect of the global financial crisis on re-shoring is smaller when the distance between parent and subsidiaries becomes larger. In turn, as distance increases, the importance of relative costs declines in explaining re-shoring activity. Finally, MNEs who have engaged in re-shoring in the past are more likely to re-shore again

Outward FDI from the United Kingdom and its policy context

The United Kingdom consistently has ranked among the biggest investor economies in terms of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). However, the recent financial and economic crisis has had a strong negative effect on OFDI from the United Kingdom. OFDI flows fell from their peak in 2007 (US$272 billion) to their lowest level of the decade in 2010 (US$ 40 billion). This sharp decline in OFDI flows was reversed in 2011, with flows recovering to around US$ 107 billion. The OFDI stock of the United Kingdom fell by 17% in 2008 compared with that in 2007. However, by 2011 the country’s OFDI stock had recovered some of the lost ground and was only 6% lower than at the peak of 2007. With regard to FDI policy, while the United Kingdom Government has long supported inward investment with general and specific measures, and systematically supported exporting, it has not either supported or discouraged outward FDI for at least 30 years. As United Kingdom OFDI is diversified both across industries and globally, it may be advisable in the current economic climate for the Government to increase its support to outward FDI in order for United Kingdom firms of all sizes to reap the benefits of overseas markets

Does offshore outsourcing impact home employment? Evidence from service multinationals

This paper investigates the impact of offshore outsourcing across 5746 European service multinational enterprises (MNEs) on employment at home. We estimate labour demand equations and specifically isolate the global financial crisis (GFC) by undertaking analysis through our longitudinal 19-year panel data, separately for the pre- (1997–2007) and crisis period (2008–2016). We distinguish between offshoring to high and low income countries, as well as between service industry groups. We show that there is some evidence that offshoring by location intensive service firms is associated with employment growth at home during the crisis period, while offshoring in information intensive industries in high income countries is associated with a reduction in employment at home, as firms offshore to be nearer to the client. Overall, our findings suggest that the crisis period has lessened the impact of offshoring service FDI on employment at home

A strategic perspective of cross-listing by emerging market firms:evidence from Indonesia, Mexico, Poland and South Africa

This paper develops an approach to the analysis of cross-listing that brings together the financial and non-financial benefits of the phenomenon. We employ the real options framework, which offers a detailed characterisation of the strategic issues associated with cross-listing, in the context of internationalisation of emerging market firms. The associated hypotheses are tested using firm-level data from four large emerging market economies with different profiles in terms of institutional quality and financial development. This allows us to extend the existing literature by isolating the relative importance of institutional quality and financial development for the benefits of cross-listing

The relationship between MNE tax haven use and FDI into developing economies characterized by capital flight

The use of tax havens by multinationals is a pervasive activity in international business. However, we know little about the complementary relationship betweentax haven use and foreign direct investment (FDI) in the developing world. Drawing on internalization theory, we develop a conceptual framework that explores this relationship and allows us to contribute to the literature on the determinants of tax haven use by developed-country multinationals. Using a large, firm-level data set, we test the model and find a strong positive association between tax haven use and FDI into countries characterized by low economic development and extreme levels of capital flight. This paper contributes to the literature by adding an important dimension to our understanding of the motives for which MNEs invest in tax havens and has important policy implications at both the domestic and the international level

Employment Protection and Relocation with Firm Heterogeneity : Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting Discussion Papers Series, N234-13

This paper examines the determinants of the decision to relocate activities abroad for firms that are located in 29 OECD countries. Our theoretical model suggests that firm heterogeneity plays a crucial role for the link between employment protection and relocation. Stricter employment protection laws in the home country discourages firms’ relocation activity. While larger, more productive firms and firms with higher labour intensities have, ceteris paribus, higher propensities to relocate, these firms also face higher exit barriers if the country from which they consider relocating has strict employment protection laws. Our theoretical predictions are supported empirically, with consistent results for firms operating in the manufacturing sector

Inward FDI in the United Kingdom and its policy context

Over the past 30 years, the United Kingdom (UK) has performed exceptionally well in consistently attracting significant volumes of inward foreign direct investment (IFDI). Of all foreign affiliates located in the EU-27 in 2010, 15% were in the United Kingdom (more than 45,000 affiliates). These foreign affiliates employed over 3.7 million workers, representing 13% of the employed UK labor force. IFDI stock represented an impressive 48% of the United Kingdom's GDP in 2009, as well as in 2010, when it reached US$1.1 trillion, the second largest globally after that of the United States. IFDI flows, which declined considerably in 2008 as well as 2009 and 2010, amounted to US$ 51 billion in 2010 and were just over 20% of gross fixed capital formation. According to UNCTAD data, in 2011, IFDI stock in the United Kingdom rose to US$1.2 trillion and IFDI flows, to US$ 54 billion. The recent global financial and economic crisis has had a significant negative impact on the investment of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) and has interrupted the upward trend in UK IFDI seen till then. However, it is hoped that the continued strength and the location of the UK economy, together with coordinated policy measures by the Government, will lead to a renewed surge in IFDI

Offshoring:a multi-country study of FDI in high-technology sectors

This paper examines what is still a relatively new phenomenon in the literature, the outsourcing / offshoring of high technology manufacturing and services. This has become a concern for both policy makers and academics for two reasons. Firstly, policy makers have become concerned that the offshoring of high technology sectors in the West will follow the more labour intensive sectors, and move to lower cost locations. Secondly, international business theory has tended to view low costs, and high levels of indigenous technological development as being the two main drivers of location advantage in the attraction of FDI. We show that this may not be the case for offshored high technology manufacturing or services