IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/115391.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Foreign direct investment and backward spillovers in the Western Balkans: the context, opportunities and barriers to the development of regional supply chains

Author

Listed:
  • Krasniqi, Besnik
  • Ahmetbasić, Jasmina
  • Bartlett, Will

Abstract

This article investigates how regional supply chains support the Western Balkans' economic growth. It first identifies the role of the cefta free trade agreement in expanding the size of the local market and opening up regional trading opportunities. It recounts how the larger market and specific industrial policies have attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) to the region in recent years. It analyses how these two factors have combined to generate export-led growth in the region and have brought about substantial structural changes within these economies. The article argues that to take continued advantage of the success in trade liberalisation and fdi attraction, policymakers should pay special attention to promoting backward spillovers by promoting linkages between local small and middle sized enterprise (SME) supplier firms and the newly arrived multi national corporations embedded into global value chains. Policies should be adopted which build the capacity of local sme suppliers within regional supply chains, both in terms of labour force skills and technological upgrades. The EU's recently launched Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans and the activities of the Western Balkan Six Chamber Investment Forum may support such policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Krasniqi, Besnik & Ahmetbasić, Jasmina & Bartlett, Will, 2022. "Foreign direct investment and backward spillovers in the Western Balkans: the context, opportunities and barriers to the development of regional supply chains," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115391, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:115391
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/115391/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. World Bank, 2019. "Western Balkans Regular Economic Report, No. 16, Fall 2019," World Bank Publications - Reports 32532, The World Bank Group.
    2. Peter Sanfey & Jakov Milatović, 2019. "The Western Balkans Regional Economic Area: From Economic Cooperation to Economic Integration," Societies and Political Orders in Transition, in: Reiner Osbild & Will Bartlett (ed.), Western Balkan Economies in Transition, pages 15-27, Springer.
    3. Beata Smarzynska Javorcik, 2004. "Does Foreign Direct Investment Increase the Productivity of Domestic Firms? In Search of Spillovers Through Backward Linkages," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(3), pages 605-627, June.
    4. Oliver Reiter & Robert Stehrer, 2018. "Trade Policies and Integration of the Western Balkans," wiiw Working Papers 148, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    5. Maurice Schiff & L. Alan Winters, 2003. "Regional Integration and Development," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15172.
    6. Will Bartlett & Reiner Osbild, 2019. "Conclusions: Achieving Sustainable Growth Through Outward Looking Policies and Regional Integration," Societies and Political Orders in Transition, in: Reiner Osbild & Will Bartlett (ed.), Western Balkan Economies in Transition, pages 165-171, Springer.
    7. Reiner Osbild & Will Bartlett (ed.), 2019. "Western Balkan Economies in Transition," Societies and Political Orders in Transition, Springer, number 978-3-319-93665-9, March.
    8. S. Estrin & M. Uvalic, 2014. "FDI into transition economies," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 22(2), pages 281-312, April.
    9. Vassilis Monastiriotis, 2016. "Institutional proximity and the size and geography of foreign direct investment spillovers: Do European firms generate more favourable productivity spillovers in the European Union neighbourhood?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(4), pages 676-697, 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. Pengfei Hou, 2024. "Two tigers in one mountain: Europeanising the Western Balkans amid China’s engagement," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 165-183, June.

    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. Jordaan,Jacob Arie & Douw,Willem & Qiang,Zhenwei, 2020. "Multinational Corporation Affiliates, Backward Linkages, and Productivity Spillovers in Developing and Emerging Economies : Evidence and Policy Making," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9364, The World Bank.
    2. Apostolov Mico & Scagnelli Simone Domenico, 2019. "Foreign-Versus Domestic-Owned firms in the Predicament ‘Cui bono?’," Business Systems Research, Sciendo, vol. 10(2), pages 18-36, September.
    3. Jan Hanousek & Evzen Kocenda & Pavla Vozárová, 2020. "Impact of Multinational Enterprises on Competition, Productivity and Trade Spillovers across European Firms," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 70(2), pages 172-212, August.
    4. Milica Uvalić & Božidar Cerović† & Jasna Atanasijević, 2020. "The Serbian Economy Ten Years After The Global Economic Crisis," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 65(225), pages 33-72, April – J.
    5. Yeboah, Samuel, 2023. "Unlocking the Global Chessboard: FDI Policies and their Impact on Entrepreneurial Ecosystems," MPRA Paper 118473, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 28 Aug 2023.
    6. Lo Turco, Alessia & Maggioni, Daniela & Zazzaro, Alberto, 2019. "Financial dependence and growth: The role of input-output linkages," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 308-328.
    7. Brissimis, Sophocles N. & Delis, Manthos D., 2011. "Bank-level estimates of market power," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 212(3), pages 508-517, August.
    8. Vu Hoang Duong & Tuong Phi Vinh, 2024. "Spillover effects of Japanese firms and the role of absorptive capacity in Vietnam," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 38(2), pages 22-41, November.
    9. Massimo Colombo & Annalisa Croce & Samuele Murtinu, 2014. "Ownership structure, horizontal agency costs and the performance of high-tech entrepreneurial firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 265-282, February.
    10. Heng, Dyna, 2011. "Capital flows and real exchange rate: does financial development matter?," MPRA Paper 48553, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised May 2012.
    11. Catherine Fuss & Angelos Theodorakopoulos, 2018. "Compositional Changes in Aggregate Productivity in an Era of Globalisation and Financial Crisis," Working Papers of VIVES - Research Centre for Regional Economics 627696, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), VIVES - Research Centre for Regional Economics.
    12. Stefania Lovo & Gonzalo Varela, 2022. "Internationally Linked Firms and Productivity in Pakistan: A Look at the Top End of the Distribution," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(10), pages 2110-2131, October.
    13. Maria Cipollina & Giorgia Giovannetti & Filomena Pietrovito & Alberto F. Pozzolo, 2012. "FDI and Growth: What Cross-country Industry Data Say," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(11), pages 1599-1629, November.
    14. Qing Liu & Larry D. Qiu & Zhigang Li, 2016. "Foreign Acquisitions in China and Multinationals’ Global Market Strategy," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 87-100, February.
    15. Isaksson, Olov H.D. & Simeth, Markus & Seifert, Ralf W., 2016. "Knowledge spillovers in the supply chain: Evidence from the high tech sectors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 699-706.
    16. Dietmar Harhoff & Elisabeth Mueller & John Van Reenen, 2014. "What are the Channels for Technology Sourcing? Panel Data Evidence from German Companies," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 204-224, March.
    17. Philipp Harms & Pierre-Guillaume Méon, 2013. "The Growth Effects of Greenfield Investment and Mergers and Acquisitions: Econometric Investigation and Implication for MENA Countries," Working Papers 794, Economic Research Forum, revised Nov 2013.
    18. Bitzer, Jürgen & Kerekes, Monika, 2008. "Does foreign direct investment transfer technology across borders? New evidence," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 100(3), pages 355-358, September.
    19. Titapa Tanchoun, 2018. "Policy and Foreign Direct Investment : Case Study of Thailand’s Automotive Industry," International Journal of Sciences, Office ijSciences, vol. 7(03), pages 1-7, March.
    20. Holger Görg & Michael Henry & Eric Strobl & Frank Walsh, 2009. "Multinational companies, backward linkages, and labour demand elasticities," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 42(1), pages 332-348, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    backward spillovers; cefta; foreign direct investment; regional supply chains; Western Balkans;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
    • N0 - Economic History - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ehl:lserod:115391. 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: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    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.