IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-08f10032.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Firm productivity and foreign direct investment: a non-monotonic relationship

Author

Listed:
  • Arijit Mukherjee

    (University of Nottingham, UK)

  • Sugata Marjit

    (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata, India)

Abstract

The theoretical prediction of Head and Ries (‘Heterogeneity and the FDI versus export decision of Japanese manufacturers', 2003, Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, 17: 448-67) is that if the foreign plant is not used to serve the home market, the exporters can be more productive than the foreign direct investors only if the host-country wage is lower than the home-country wage. With unionized labor markets, we show that there always exist situations where the exporters are more productive than the foreign investors even if the host-country wage is higher than the home-country wage. Given the cost of FDI, a higher trade cost and higher bargaining powers of the labor unions make this result more likely.

Suggested Citation

  • Arijit Mukherjee & Sugata Marjit, 2009. "Firm productivity and foreign direct investment: a non-monotonic relationship," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(1), pages 230-237.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-08f10032
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2009/Volume29/EB-09-V29-I1-P24.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Layard, Richard & Nickell, Stephen & Jackman, Richard, 2005. "Unemployment: Macroeconomic Performance and the Labour Market," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199279173.
    2. Sourafel Girma & Richard Kneller & Mauro Pisu, 2005. "Exports versus FDI: An Empirical Test," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 141(2), pages 193-218, July.
    3. Lopez, Monica Correa & Naylor, Robin A., 2004. "The Cournot-Bertrand profit differential: A reversal result in a differentiated duopoly with wage bargaining," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 681-696, June.
    4. Elhanan Helpman & Marc J. Melitz & Stephen R. Yeaple, 2004. "Export Versus FDI with Heterogeneous Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 300-316, March.
    5. Maury Gittleman & Edward N. Wolff, 1993. "International Comparisons Of Inter‐Industry Wage Differentials," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 39(3), pages 295-312, September.
    6. David Greenaway & Richard Kneller, 2007. "Firm heterogeneity, exporting and foreign direct investment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(517), pages 134-161, February.
    7. Robert J. Flanagan, 1999. "Macroeconomic Performance and Collective Bargaining: An International Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(3), pages 1150-1175, September.
    8. Kamal Saggi, 2002. "Trade, Foreign Direct Investment, and International Technology Transfer: A Survey," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 17(2), pages 191-235, September.
    9. Jože P. Damijan & Sašo Polanec & Janez Prašnikar, 2007. "Outward FDI and Productivity: Micro‐evidence from Slovenia," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 135-155, January.
    10. Arijit Mukherjee, 2008. "Unionised Labour Market and Strategic Production Decision of a Multinational," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(532), pages 1621-1639, October.
    11. Head, Keith & Ries, John, 2003. "Heterogeneity and the FDI versus export decision of Japanese manufacturers," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 448-467, December.
    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. Arijit Mukherjee & Umut Erksan Senalp, 2021. "Firm‐productivity and cross border merger," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 838-859, September.
    2. Arijit Mukherjee, 2010. "A note on firm-productivity and foreign direct investment," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(3), pages 2107-2111.
    3. Domenico Buccella, 2011. "Labor unions and economic integration: A review," Económica, Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, vol. 0, pages 25-89, January-D.

    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. Arijit Mukherjee & Kullapat Suetrong, 2012. "Unionisation Structure and Outward Foreign Direct Investment," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 168(2), pages 266-279, June.
    2. repec:zbw:rwirep:0259 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Michaela Trax, 2011. "Productivity and the Internationalization of Firms – Cross-border Acquisitions versus Greenfield Investments," Ruhr Economic Papers 0259, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    4. Alessandro Borin & Michele Mancini, 2016. "Foreign direct investment and firm performance: an empirical analysis of Italian firms," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 152(4), pages 705-732, November.
    5. Arijit Mukherjee, 2010. "A note on firm-productivity and foreign direct investment," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 30(3), pages 2107-2111.
    6. Cao, Jiyun & Mukherjee, Arijit, 2018. "Foreign direct investment, unionised labour markets and welfare," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 330-339.
    7. Trax, Michaela, 2011. "Productivity and the Internationalization of Firms – Cross-border Acquisitions versus Greenfield Investments," Ruhr Economic Papers 259, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    8. Engel, Dirk & Procher, Vivien, 2012. "Export, FDI and firm productivity," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 44(15), pages 1931-1940.
    9. Kiyota, Kozo & Urata, Shujiro, 2008. "The role of multinational firms in international trade: The case of Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 338-352, August.
    10. Riccardo De Bonis & Giovanni Ferri & Zeno Rotondi, 2015. "Do firm–bank relationships affect firms’ internationalization?," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 142, pages 60-80.
    11. Gattai, Valeria & Natale, Piergiovanna & Rossi, Francesca, 2023. "Board diversity and outward FDI: Evidence from europe," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    12. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm & Iyer, Harish, 2021. "Effect of Aid for Trade and Foreign Direct Investment Inflows on the Utilization of Unilateral Trade Preferences offered by the QUAD countries," EconStor Preprints 238211, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    13. Andrzej Cieślik & Michael Ryan, 2009. "Firm Productivity and Foreign Direct Investment into Non‐core Activities," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 297-321, September.
    14. Dilek Demirbas & Ila Patnaik & Ajay Shah, 2013. "Graduating to globalisation: a study of Southern multinationals," Indian Growth and Development Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(2), pages 242-259, November.
    15. Ayesha Ashraf & Dierk Herzer & Peter Nunnenkamp, 2016. "The Effects of Greenfield FDI and Cross-border M&As on Total Factor Productivity," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(11), pages 1728-1755, November.
    16. Maria Rosaria Ferrante & Marzia Freo, 2012. "The Total Factor Productivity Gap between Internationalised and Domestic Firms: Net Premium or Heterogeneity Effect?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(9), pages 1186-1214, September.
    17. Shao, Yanmin & Shang, Yan, 2016. "Decisions of OFDI Engagement and Location for Heterogeneous Multinational firms: Evidence from Chinese firms," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 178-187.
    18. Cieslik, Andrzej & Ryan, Michael, 2009. "Firm heterogeneity, foreign market entry mode and ownership choice," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 213-218, August.
    19. Todo, Yasuyuki & Sato, Hitoshi, 2014. "Effects of presidents’ characteristics on internationalization of small and medium firms in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 236-255.
    20. Kenneth S. Chan & Miaojie Yu, 2016. "Special Section: China's Growing Trade and its Role to the World Economy," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 32-34, February.
    21. Pinuccia Calia & Maria Ferrante, 2013. "How do firms combine different internationalisation modes? A multivariate probit approach," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 149(4), pages 663-696, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • F2 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business

    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:ebl:ecbull:eb-08f10032. 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: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.