Showing papers by "Ari Kokko published in 1994"

Productivity spillovers from FDI in the Uruguayan manufacturing sector.

Abstract: This paper examines intra-industry spillovers from FDI in Uruguayan manufacturing plants in 1988, to determine whether differences in the technology gap between locally- owned plants and foreign affiliates have any impact on the relation between local productivity and foreign presence. We find a positive and statistically significant spillover effect only in a sub-sample of locally-owned plants with moderate technology gaps vis-a-vis foreign firms. Our interpretation is that there are firm-specific differences in the ability to absorb spillovers, and that these may explain some of the contradictory findings of earlier spillover studies.

Host Country Competition, Labor Skills, and Technology Transfer by Multinationals

Abstract: In Chapter 13, we examined aggregated data on the technology imports of US affiliates in thirty-three host countries, and found some weak support for the hypotheses proposed by Wang and Blomstrom (1992). Our results showed that the affiliates’ technology imports were positively related to the income level of the host country and (crude proxies for) the competitive pressure in the host economy, but negatively related to the level of distortions and various host country performance requirements. In this chapter, we use more detailed data from a single host country, Mexico, to analyze how the technology imports of foreign firms are related to various industry characteristics. We are particularly interested in the hypotheses that market rivalry and availability of skilled labour may encourage the multinationals to bring more technology to their foreign operations.1

Home Country Effects of Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Sweden

Abstract: This paper examines two broad issues related to foreign investment by Swedish multinationals: first the effects of outward foreign direct investment on domestic investment, exports, and employment, and second, the effects on the domestic economy from the increasing division of labor between the parents and foreign affiliates of Swedish MNCs. The paper summarizes and synthesizes the existing empirical evidence on these matters (much of which has hitherto only been available in Swedish) and discusses some possible long run effects that have not received much attention in the literature.

Effects on Swedish Investment and Growth of Membership in the European Union

Abstract: The first part of the present paper summarizes the Swedish government's official assessment of the economic effects of membership in the European Union (SOU 1994:6, Sverige och Europa: En samhallsekonomisk konsekvensanalys) The summary is intended as an objective review of the Swedish impact assessment, and focuses on the assessment's analysis of the effects of integration on investment and growth The assessment concludes that membership will allow increases in Swedish investment ratios and growth rates, and these effects are identified as the most important positive consequences of membership in the EU The second part of the paper provides a critical discussion of the assessment's analysis of the investment and growth effects It is argued that some of the assessment's conclusions regarding increases in investment ratios and growth rates are disputable from the point of view of academic economics More specifically, we lack both the theoretical understanding and the empirical data to make precise predictions about the effects of EU membership on Swedish investment and growth