Productivity consequences of Foreign Direct Investment Connectivity

Abstract

The primary aim of this dissertation was to examine the implications of conceptualizing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as a multilateral and multilevel phenomenon. The first research study in the dissertation examines the implication of a multilateral perspective on FDI in our assessment of the relationship between inward FDI and the economic growth and development of the host countries. This study showed that inward FDI positively impacts the economic growth of the host countries in both the short and long term. The second research study focused on conceptualizing FDI as a multilevel phenomenon. The fundamental premise of this chapter was to explicitly acknowledge that even though the implications of FDI can be observed at the aggregate level, such as host countries, as was the case in the first research study, these consequences emerge from the decisions of the individual firms. Furthermore, the findings of this research study demonstrate that different levels of FDI are interconnected but have different implications for the firm’s performance. Drawing upon the existing literature, two considered levels were location-based FDI networks and interfirm collocation networks. Empirical analyses showed that location-based networks are characterized by agglomeration and lead to positive production externalities, while competitive interactions characterize interfirm collocation networks and lead to negative production externalities. Consequently, increasing agglomeration is associated with increasing production output, and increasing competitive interaction is associated with decreasing production output of the firms. In the last research study, we considered how different network externalities, as explicated in the previous chapter, impact the firms' strategic decision-making. This study shows that firm membership in the country-of-origin network helps them make better decisions, while membership in interform collocation networks worsens their decision-making abilities.