1,721,046 research outputs found
Multinational Firms in the World Economy
No full textDepending on one's point of view, multinational enterprises are either the heroes or the villains of the globalized economy. Governments compete fiercely for foreign direct investment by such companies, but complain when firms go global and move their activities elsewhere. Multinationals are seen by some as threats to national identities and wealth and are accused of riding roughshod over national laws and of exploiting cheap labor. However, the debate on these companies and foreign direct investment is rarely grounded on sound economic arguments. This book brings clarity to the debate. With the contribution of other leading experts, Giorgio Barba Navaretti and Anthony Venables assess the determinants of multinationals' actions, investigating why their activity has expanded so rapidly, and why some countries have seen more such activity than others. They analyze their effects on countries that are recipients of inward investments, and on those countries that see multinational firms moving jobs abroad. The arguments are made using modern advances in economic analysis, a case study, and by drawing on the extensive empirical literature that assesses the determinants and consequences of activity by multinationals. The treatment is rigorous, yet accessible to all readers with a background in economics, whether students or professionals. Drawing out policy implications, the authors conclude that multinational enterprises are generally a force for the promotion of prosperity in the world economy.globalization, foreign investment, national identities, wealth, labor, world economy, prosperity, policy
Multinational Firms in the World Economy/ Anthony J. Venables, Giorgio Barba Navaretti.
No full textIn English.Depending on one's point of view, multinational enterprises are either the heroes or the villains of the globalized economy. Governments compete fiercely for foreign direct investment by such companies, but complain when firms go global and move their activities elsewhere. Multinationals are seen by some as threats to national identities and wealth and are accused of riding roughshod over national laws and of exploiting cheap labor. However, the debate on these companies and foreign direct investment is rarely grounded on sound economic arguments. This book brings clarity to the debate. With the contribution of other leading experts, Giorgio Barba Navaretti and Anthony Venables assess the determinants of multinationals' actions, investigating why their activity has expanded so rapidly, and why some countries have seen more such activity than others. They analyze their effects on countries that are recipients of inward investments, and on those countries that see multinational firms moving jobs abroad. The arguments are made using modern advances in economic analysis, a case study, and by drawing on the extensive empirical literature that assesses the determinants and consequences of activity by multinationals. The treatment is rigorous, yet accessible to all readers with a background in economics, whether students or professionals. Drawing out policy implications, the authors conclude that multinational enterprises are generally a force for the promotion of prosperity in the world economy.Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Contributors -- 1 Facts and Issues -- 2 The Multinational Enterprise: an Overview of Theory and Empirical Findings -- 3 Horizontal Foreign Direct Investment: Product Market Access -- 4 Vertical Foreign Direct Investment: Input Costs and Factor Prices -- 5 Multinationals: the Firm and the Market -- 6 Determinants of FDI: the Evidence -- 7 Host Country Effects: Conceptual Framework and the Evidence -- 8 FDI and the Host Economy: a Case Study of Ireland -- 9 Home Country Effects of Foreign Direct Investment -- 10 Policy Implications and Effects -- 11 Conclusions -- Appendix A. Statistical Definitions and Databases on Foreign Direct Investment and the Activities of Multinationals -- Glossary -- References -- Index1 online resource (352 p.)
Employment, Innovation, and Productivity: Evidence from Italian Microdata
Full text linkItalian manufacturing firms have been losing ground with respect to many of their European competitors. This paper presents some empirical evidence on the effects of innovation on employment growth and therefore on firms' productivity with the goal of understanding the roots of such poor performance. We use firm level data from the last three surveys on Italian manufacturing firms conducted by Mediocredito-Capitalia, which cover the period 1995-2003. Using a slightly modified version of the model proposed by Harrison, Jaumandreu, Mairesse and Peters (HJMP 2005), which separates employment growth rates into those associated with old and new products, we find no evidence of significant employment displacement effects stemming from process innovation. The sources of employment growth during the period are split equally between the net contribution of product innovation and the net contribution from sales growth of old products. However, the contribution of product innovation to employment growth is somewhat lower than in the four European countries considered in HJMP 2005, and the contribution of innovation in general to productivity growth is almost nil in Italy during this period.
Moving skills from hands to heads : import of technology and export performance
No full textThis paper examines the link between imported technologies and a country’s export performance, as measured by product quality. The analysis is set in the background of the process of regional integration between the European Union (EU) and its neighbouring developing countries. The underlying question is whether trade integration fosters or dampens learning and technological upgrading. We find that unit values of exports from these countries to the EU rose steadily between 1988 and 1996, relative to the unit values of world exports to Europe. If increases in unit values satisfactorily proxy increases in product quality, then trade integration has fostered product upgrading and technological learning in the sample countries. We find that imported technologies and other sources of knowledge have a strong bearing on this pattern. Technological inflows are captured by the degree of involvement of European companies in export flows from our sample countries (outward processing trade (OPT)) and by the skill content of the machines imported
Offshoring and Immigrant Employment: Firm-level Theory and Evidence
Full text linkWe 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.
Recommended from our members
Age and firm growth: evidence from three European countries
No full textThis article provides new insights into the dependence of firm growth on age along the entire distribution of growth rates, and conditional on survival. Using data from the European firms in a global economy survey, and adopting a quantile regression approach, we uncover evidence for a sample of French, Italian and Spanish manufacturing firms with more than ten employees in the period from 2001 to 2008. We find that: (1) young firms grow faster than old firms, especially in the highest growth quantiles; (2) young firms face the same probability of declining as their older counterparts; (3) results are robust to the inclusion of other firms’ characteristics such as labor productivity, capital intensity and the financial structure; (4) high growth is associated with younger chief executive officers and other attributes that capture the attitude of the firm toward growth and change. The effect of age on firm growth is rather similar across countries
The global operations of European firms - The second EFIGE policy report
Full text linkThis Bruegel blueprint analyses, within the framework of the EFIGE (European Firms in a Global Economy) project, the export and foreign investment performance of European firms. It is based on new cross-country data from 15,000 individual firms never available before.
Written by Giorgio Barba Navaretti, Matteo Bugamelli, Gianmarco Ottaviano and Fabiano Schivardi, the report looks at the specific elements that make some European companies more competitive than others in foreign markets, revealing that firm characteristics -mainly size- are the primary determinants of export performance, even more so than country characteristics. Therefore the authors suggest that firm growth and consolidation in all European countries would generate a considerable increase in the value of European exports and thus help lift European growth.
These findings will be crucial for policymakers, who, in order to boost the chance of European firmsâ?? on foreign markets, should shift the policy discussion from the current focus on specific sectors and skill groups to structural reforms that allow firms across the board to grow and to develop more sophisticated forms of management.
Until now, evidence on European firmsâ?? competitiveness has been based on partial, non-comparable national data. But for the first time this paper is based on detailed results from a new large-scale survey of 15,000 manufacturing companies in seven EU countries (Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom). The survey examines firmsâ?? exporting, importing, outsourcing and foreign investment activities. This survey data has then been combined with structural data about the individual firms taken from their balance-sheets such as governance, profits, number of employees.
Fiat Chrysler’s story shows that manufacturing can be viableand successful in mature western economies
No full textIs there a future for industry in Europe and North America? Giorgio Barba Navaretti and Gianmarco Ottaviano use the example of the newly merged transatlantic car-maker Fiat Chrysler to debunk a number of myths about the nature of manufacturing and its viability in the mature economies of the West
- …
