‘Footloose’ Multinationals?

We examine whether multinational companies are more footloose than their domestic counterparts in the host country, using data for the Irish manufacturing sector. First, we investigate whether plant survival rates differ between multinationals and indigenous plants. Second, we analyse whether employment is more unstable in multinationals. As regards the first aspect we find that multinationals are more likely to exit the market than indigenous plants when we control for other plant- and industryspecific characteristics. In terms of employment persistence we find that new jobs generated in multinational companies appear to be more persistent than jobs generated in indigenous plants. In contrast, they are not any more or less likely to reverse employment reductions, all other things being equal.