Three Essays of Firm Productivity, Technology Spillovers, and Foreign Direct Investment
Author: Feng Liang
Publisher:
Published: 2006
Total Pages: 284
ISBN-13:
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Author: Feng Liang
Publisher:
Published: 2006
Total Pages: 284
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Rashid Nikzad
Publisher:
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 348
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Luosha Du
Publisher:
Published: 2012
Total Pages: 272
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSince opening its economy to the outside world in late 1978, China has experienced a massive, protracted, and unexpected economic upsurge, which has attracted the attention of a large and diverse group of researchers. China's three-decade economic reforms have reshaped the economic structure from plan to market, through a variety of policy actions, such as openness to foreign investment and efforts to build economic zones. Economic growth and potential technology transfer are indeed the main rationale behind the Chinese government's aggressive efforts over the past three decades to enhance openness and to increase domestic competition. This dissertation consists of three chapters. All chapters study firm behavior and their policy implications. However, the focus of each chapter is different. The first chapter (coauthored with Ann Harrison and Gary Jefferson) studies how institutions affect productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) to China's domestic industrial enterprises. The second chapter separates the effect of agglomeration economies on firm performance (measured by total factor productivity) from the impact of competition and better transport infrastructure. The third chapter (coauthored with Philippe Aghion, Mathias Dewatripont, Ann Harrison, Patrick Legros) tests for the complementarity between competition and industrial policy. The first Chapter (co-authored with Ann Harrison and Gary Jefferson) investigates how institutions affect productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) to China's domestic industrial enterprises during 1998-2007. We examine three institutional features that comprise aspects of China's "special characteristics": (1) the different sources of FDI, where FDI is nearly evenly divided between mostly Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and Hong Kong (SAR of China), Taiwan (China), and Macau (SAR of China); (2) China's heterogeneous ownership structure, involving state- (SOEs) and non-state owned (non-SOEs) enterprises, firms with foreign equity participation, and non-SOE, domestic firms; and (3) industrial promotion via tariffs or through tax holidays to foreign direct investment. We also explore how productivity spillovers from FDI changed with China's entry into the WTO in late 2001. We find robust positive and significant spillovers to domestic firms via backward linkages (the contacts between foreign buyers and local suppliers). Our results suggest varied success with industrial promotion policies. Final goods tariffs as well as input tariffs are negatively associated with firm-level productivity. However, we find that productivity spillovers were higher from foreign firms that paid less than the statutory corporate tax rate. The second chapter separates the effect of agglomeration economies on firm performance (measured by total factor productivity) from the impact of competition and better transport infrastructure. Consequently, this paper primarily addresses the problem of omitted variable bias in estimating the impact of agglomeration economies on firm performance. The results suggest that firm productivity is improved only by the presence of other firms in the same sector (localization economies). The inclusion of information on road construction does not affect the importance of pure localization economies. However, including a measure of competition in the estimation significantly reduces the importance of localization externalities. The results also suggest that both road-building and competition are positively associated with productivity growth. The results for sub-samples indicate that exporting firms and firms financed by foreign investment benefit more from localization externalities than do their non-exporting and domestically-financed counterparts. The third chapter (co-authored with Philippe Aghion, Ann Harrison, Mathias Dewatripont, and Patrick Legros) argues that sectoral state aid tends to foster productivity, productivity growth, and product innovation to a larger extent when it targets more competitive sectors and when it is not concentrated on one or a small number of firms in the sector. A main implication from our analysis is that the debate on industrial policy should no longer be for or against having such a policy. As it turns out, sectoral policies are being implemented in one form or another by a large number of countries worldwide, starting with China. Rather, the issue should be on how to design and govern sectoral policies in order to make them more competition-friendly and therefore more growth-enhancing. Our analysis suggests that proper selection criteria together with good guidelines for governing sectoral support can make a significant difference in terms of growth and innovation performance. Yet the issue remains of how to minimize the scope for influence activities by sectoral interests when a sectoral state aid policy is to be implemented. One answer is that the less concentrated and more competition-compatible the allocation of state aid to a sector, the less firms in that sector will lobby for that aid as they will anticipate lower profits from it. In other words, political economy considerations should reinforce the interaction between competition and the efficiency of sectoral state aid. A comprehensive analysis of the optimal governance of sectoral policies still awaits further research.
Author: Maurice David Kugler
Publisher:
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 438
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Chu Ping Lo
Publisher:
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 246
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Gene M. Grossman
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 1993-01-29
Total Pages: 380
ISBN-13: 9780262570978
DOWNLOAD EBOOKGrossman and Helpman develop a unique approach in which innovation is viewed as a deliberate outgrowth of investments in industrial research by forward-looking, profit-seeking agents. Traditional growth theory emphasizes the incentives for capital accumulation rather than technological progress. Innovation is treated as an exogenous process or a by-product of investment in machinery and equipment. Grossman and Helpman develop a unique approach in which innovation is viewed as a deliberate outgrowth of investments in industrial research by forward-looking, profit-seeking agents.
Author: Edward N. Wolff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2013-12-16
Total Pages: 537
ISBN-13: 1107651212
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA vast new literature on the sources of economic growth has now accumulated. This book critically reviews the most significant works in this field and summarizes what is known today about the sources of economic growth. The first part discusses the most important theoretical models that have been used in modern growth theory as well as methodological issues in productivity measurement. The second part examines the long-term record on productivity among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, considers the sources of growth among them with particular attention to the role of education, investigates convergence at the industry level among them, and examines the productivity slowdown of the 1970s. The third part looks at the sources of growth among non-OECD countries. Each chapter emphasizes the factors that appear to be most important in explaining growth performance.
Author: Laura Alfaro
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Published: 2003-09-01
Total Pages: 34
ISBN-13: 1451859481
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis paper examines the role financial markets play in the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic development. We model an economy with a continuum of agents indexed by their level of ability. Agents can either work for the foreign company or undertake entrepreneurial activities, which are subject to a fixed cost. Better financial markets allow agents to take advantage of knowledge spillovers from FDI, magnifying the output effects of FDI. Empirically, we show that well-developed financial markets allow significant gains from FDI, while FDI alone plays an ambiguous role in contributing to development.
Author: Thomas Farole
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Published: 2014-01-13
Total Pages: 302
ISBN-13: 1464801266
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis book presents the results of a groundbreaking study on ‘spillovers’ of knowledge and technology from global value-chain oriented foreign direct investment (FDI) in Sub-Saharan Africa, and discusses implications for policymakers hoping to harness the power of FDI for economic development.
Author: Nicholas Bloom
Publisher:
Published: 2005
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13:
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