FDI Spillovers and High-Growth Firms in Developing Countries

Reyes, Jose-Daniel

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: FDI;    FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT;    GLOBAL VALUE CHAIN;    SPILLOVERS;    FIRM PERFORMANCE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8243
RP-ID  :  WPS8243

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

This paper evaluates the heterogeneousimpact of spillovers from multinational corporations (MNCs)to domestic enterprises in the developing world. Itempirically investigates two transmission channels ofknowledge spillovers. First, direct contractual linkagesbetween indigenous firms and MNCs. Second, indirectdemonstration effects accrued by domestic firms by imitatingforeign technologies either through observation or by hiringworkers trained by MNCs. The paper focuses on the impact ofspillovers on high-growth firms, which are enterprises withhigh job creation rates and, therefore, assumed to have highabsorptive capacities. The paper also evaluates spilloversstemming from MNCs with different motivations to invest indeveloping countries. Employing a survey of around 71,000firms across 50 sectors in 122 developing countries, thepaper shows that high-growth firms internalize spilloversthrough both avenues and that contractual linkages are themost powerful transmission channel. FDI embedded in globalvalue chains generates larger spillovers to high-growthdomestic firms than investment that seeks to serve the hosteconomy. There is no evidence that natural resource-seekingFDI generates spillovers. The results have importantimplications for policy design, as public funding indeveloping countries is often directed to support programsthat seek to connect domestic suppliers with MNCs.