Is acquisition-FDI during an economic crisis detrimental for domestic innovation?

This paper examines how acquisition-FDI during a financial crisis, or fire-sale FDI, affects the R&D investments of target firms. We compare these effects with acquisitions that occur during periods of strong economic growth. Using a panel of Spanish firms from 2004 to 2014, we find that irrespective of when in the business cycle the acquisition occurs, the best domestic firms are cherry-picked by foreign multinationals. Using propensity score matching and difference-in-difference regressions, we find that firms acquired during crises experience smaller declines in domestic R&D than firms acquired during periods of robust growth. To explain why fire-sale FDI does not result in large declines in R&D in target firms, we rely on the macroeconomic literature on the opportunity cost of R&D over the business cycle. Consistent with this theory, we find that firms acquired during crises search for new markets and technologies by becoming more exploratory in their innovation than firms acquired during non-crisis periods.