Efectos de derrames horizontales de productividad de las empresas transnacionales en la industria manufacturera uruguaya, 1997-2008

In this paper we analyze the existence of intra-industry productivity spillovers on Uruguayan manufacturing firms associated with the increased presence of transnational companies. We perform an econometric estimation bi-stage using a panel of manufacturing firms for the period 1997-2008. In the first stage, we estimate the total factor productivity (TFP) using different econometric techniques (Olley & Pakes, 1996; Blundell & Bond, 1998; Levinsohn & Petrin, 2003). In the second stage, we estimate the effect of the increasing presence of transnational companies in the sector on TFP of domestic firms. We make modifications to the base model in order to analyze the effects of the existence of heterogeneous spillovers based on the "absorptive capacity" of domestic firms and the technology-intensive sectors. We also analyze the effects of the recent process of FDI inflows on two keys sectors: Food-beverages and wood-paper. The results indicate that there are no effects of significant productivity spillovers for the average manufacturing sector. However, the large domestic firms with absorbing capacity receive spillovers significantly higher than other large manufacturing firms, while the evidence indicates that there are positive spillovers in low-technology sectors. The effects on the food-beverage sector are significantly lower than those observed on other industrial sectors, while, in the wood-paper sector there are evidence of larger effects.