IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v125y2014i2p149-152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The transfer of workers within multinationals and ownership of foreign affiliates

Author

Listed:
  • Lee, Joonhyung

Abstract

We study the variation in ownership shares across affiliates of the same multinational firm. Using the micro-level data on foreign affiliates of South Korean multinationals, we construct a proxy for the headquarter intangible asset using transferred Korean workers from the parent to the affiliate. Our results show a strong relationship with the parent ownership share even after controlling for the parent fixed effect. Our empirical evidence thus extends support for the theory on multinational firm boundaries at the micro-level.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, Joonhyung, 2014. "The transfer of workers within multinationals and ownership of foreign affiliates," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 125(2), pages 149-152.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:125:y:2014:i:2:p:149-152
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2014.08.026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176514003243
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2014.08.026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alesina, Alberto & Devleeschauwer, Arnaud & Easterly, William & Kurlat, Sergio & Wacziarg, Romain, 2003. "Fractionalization," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 155-194, June.
    2. Arnaud Costinot & Lindsay Oldenski & James Rauch, 2011. "Adaptation and the Boundary of Multinational Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 298-308, February.
    3. Stephen Ross Yeaple, 2006. "Offshoring, Foreign Direct Investment, and the Structure of U.S. Trade," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(2-3), pages 602-611, 04-05.
    4. Horst Raff & Michael Ryan & Frank Stähler, 2012. "Firm Productivity and the Foreign‐Market Entry Decision," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 849-871, September.
    5. Pol Antràs, 2003. "Firms, Contracts, and Trade Structure," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1375-1418.
    6. Nunn, Nathan & Trefler, Daniel, 2013. "Incomplete contracts and the boundaries of the multinational firm," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 330-344.
    7. Debaere, Peter & Lee, Hongshik & Lee, Joonhyung, 2013. "Language, ethnicity and intrafirm trade," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 244-253.
    8. Nakamura, M. & Xie, J., 1998. "Nonverifiability, noncontractibility and ownership determination models in foreign direct investment, with an application to foreign operations in Japan," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 571-599, September.
    9. Papke, Leslie E & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M, 1996. "Econometric Methods for Fractional Response Variables with an Application to 401(K) Plan Participation Rates," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 619-632, Nov.-Dec..
    10. Elizabeth Asiedu & Hadi Salehi Esfahani, 2001. "Ownership Structure In Foreign Direct Investment Projects," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(4), pages 647-662, November.
    11. Raff, Horst & Ryan, Michael & Stähler, Frank, 2009. "Whole vs. shared ownership of foreign affiliates," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 572-581, September.
    12. Antrà s, Pol & Yeaple, Stephen R., 2014. "Multinational Firms and the Structure of International Trade," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 55-130, Elsevier.
    13. Ingo Eduard Isphording & Sebastian Otten, 2013. "The Costs of Babylon—Linguistic Distance in Applied Economics," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 354-369, May.
    14. Fearon, James D, 2003. "Ethnic and Cultural Diversity by Country," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 195-222, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nakamura, Masao & Zhang, Anming, 2018. "Foreign direct investment with host country market structures, with empirical application to Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 43-53.
    2. Jae‐Joon Han & Hongshik Lee & Joonhyung Lee, 2019. "The role of foreign affiliate productivity in the integration strategies of multinational firms," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(5), pages 1576-1597, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alquist, Ron & Berman, Nicolas & Mukherjee, Rahul & Tesar, Linda L., 2019. "Financial constraints, institutions, and foreign ownership," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 63-83.
    2. Defever, Fabrice & Toubal, Farid, 2013. "Productivity, relationship-specific inputs and the sourcing modes of multinationals," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 345-357.
    3. Debaere, Peter & Lee, Hongshik & Lee, Joonhyung, 2013. "Language, ethnicity and intrafirm trade," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 244-253.
    4. Eppinger, Peter & Kukharskyy, Bohdan, 2021. "Contracting institutions and firm integration around the world," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    5. Díez, Federico J., 2014. "The asymmetric effects of tariffs on intra-firm trade and offshoring decisions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 76-91.
    6. repec:hal:pseose:hal-00860203 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. repec:hal:pseose:hal-01304131 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Onur A. Koska & Ngo Van Long & Frank Stähler, 2018. "Foreign direct investment as a signal," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 60-83, February.
    9. Chen, Xiaoping & Lu, Yi & Zhu, Lianming, 2017. "Product cycle, contractibility, and global sourcing," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 283-296.
    10. Ramondo, Natalia & Rappoport, Veronica & Ruhl, Kim J., 2016. "Intrafirm trade and vertical fragmentation in U.S. multinational corporations," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 51-59.
    11. Alberto Alesina & Johann Harnoss & Hillel Rapoport, 2016. "Birthplace diversity and economic prosperity," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 101-138, June.
    12. Nunn, Nathan & Trefler, Daniel, 2014. "Domestic Institutions as a Source of Comparative Advantage," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 263-315, Elsevier.
    13. Tobias Brändle, 2015. "Is offshoring linked to offshoring potential? Evidence from German linked employer–employee data," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 151(4), pages 735-766, November.
    14. Holger Görg & Verena Lauber & Birgit Meyer & Peter Nunnenkamp, 2008. "Firm Heterogeneity and Choice of Ownership Structure: An Empirical Analysis of German FDI in India," Discussion Papers 08/39, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    15. Frank Stähler, 2014. "Partial ownership and cross-border mergers," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 111(3), pages 209-237, April.
    16. Holger Gorg & Henning Muhlen & Peter Nunnenkamp, 2010. "FDI Liberalisation, Firm Heterogeneity and Foreign Ownership: German Firm Decisions in Reforming India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(8), pages 1367-1384.
    17. Liu, Mengxiao, 2021. "The missing option in firm boundary decisions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    18. Ito, Tadashi & Tanaka, Ayumu, 2022. "FDI, ownership structure, and productivity," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    19. Stähler, Frank & Ryan, Michael & Raff, Horst, 2007. "Whole versus Shared Ownership of Foreign Affiliates," Economics Working Papers 2007-18, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Department of Economics.
    20. Timothy DESTEFANO & ITO Keiko & Richard KNELLER & Jonathan TIMMIS, 2023. "Till Death Do Us Part: Relationship shocks, supply chain organization and firm performance," Discussion papers 23049, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    21. Alberto Osnago & Nadia Rocha & Michele Ruta, 2019. "Deep trade agreements and vertical FDI: The devil is in the details," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(4), pages 1558-1599, November.
    22. Tobias Brändle & Andreas Koch, 2017. "Offshoring and Outsourcing Potentials: Evidence from German Micro-Level Data," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(9), pages 1775-1806, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Multinational firm boundaries; Incomplete contract; Ownership; Headquarter intangible asset;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F20 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:125:y:2014:i:2:p:149-152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.