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How Does Foreign Direct Investment Measure Real Investment by Foreign-owned Companies? Firm-level Analysis

Author

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  • Leino, Topias
  • Ali-Yrkkö, Jyrki

Abstract

We study how Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) measures gross fixed capital formation in foreign-owned companies. Our data include firm-level information on FDI inflows and real investment (Gross Fixed Capital Formation) by foreign-owned companies located in Finland. Our results suggest that the recorded annual inflows of FDI poorly measure annual real investments in foreign-owned companies. Since the beginning of the global recession in 2008, FDI has significantly underestimated real investments by foreign companies in Finland. We seek to explain these findings by describing Finnish FDI target enterprises and subgroups and the nature of their FDI flows from several perspectives. We show how FDI target enterprises use other sources of funding in addition to FDI, and how a few large transactions, often related to cross-border mergers and acquisitions, can explain a great deal of the recorded annual FDI flows. We also describe how Finland’s FDI figures increasingly consist of funds that merely pass through the FDI enterprises and subgroups, arguably with little or no real economic linkage to the Finnish economy, and present a calculation method for estimating such pass-through funding.

Suggested Citation

  • Leino, Topias & Ali-Yrkkö, Jyrki, 2014. "How Does Foreign Direct Investment Measure Real Investment by Foreign-owned Companies? Firm-level Analysis," ETLA Reports 27, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    • Handle: RePEc:rif:report:27
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    7. Van Loo, Frances, 1977. "The Effect of Foreign Direct Investment on Investment in Canada," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 59(4), pages 474-481, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sébastien Miroudot & Davide Rigo, 2022. "Multinational production and investment provisions in preferential trade agreements [Intra-industry foreign direct investment]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(6), pages 1275-1308.
    2. Maria Borga & Cecilia Caliandro, 2020. "Eliminating the Pass-Through: Towards FDI Statistics That Better Capture the Financial and Economic Linkages between Countries," NBER Chapters, in: Challenges of Globalization in the Measurement of National Accounts, pages 103-151, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Crowley, Patrick & Hughes Hallett, Andrew, 2014. "Volatility transfers between cycles: A theory of why the "great moderation" was more mirage than moderation," Research Discussion Papers 23/2014, Bank of Finland.
    4. Crowley, Patrick & Hughes Hallett, Andrew, 2014. "Volatility transfers between cycles: A theory of why the "great moderation" was more mirage than moderation," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 23/2014, Bank of Finland.
    5. Richard Bolwijn & Bruno Casella & Davide Rigo, . "An FDI-driven approach to measuring the scale and economic impact of BEPS," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    6. Bruno Casella, . "Looking through conduit FDI in search of ultimate investors – a probabilistic approach," UNCTAD Transnational Corporations Journal, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    7. Maria Borga & Cecilia Caliandro, 2018. "Eliminating the Pass-Through: Towards FDI Statistics that Better Capture the Financial and Economic Linkages between Countries," NBER Working Papers 25029, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Casella, Bruno, 2019. "FDI Statistics and International Production: Towards (Re-) Conciliation?," MPRA Paper 95203, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 14 May 2019.
    9. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2014_023 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Casella, Bruno, 2019. "Looking through conduit FDI in search of ultimate investors – a probabilistic approach," MPRA Paper 95188, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Foreign direct investment; Fixed investment; GFCF; Measure; Measurement; Passthrough; Inward; Firm-level;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity

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