英国机电产业外商直接投资的生产力溢出效应外文原文.pdfVIP

Regional Science and Urban Economics 37 (2007) 399 – 412 /locate/regec Local productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment in the U.K. electronics industry Sourafel Girma ⁎, Katharine Wakelin Nottingham University Business School, Jubilee Campus, Wollaton Road, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, United Kingdom Accepted 6 November 2006 Available online 23 January 2007 Abstract The paper examines whether productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment are geographically limited. Using plant-level data from the U.K. electronics sector, it finds robust evidence of both intra- industry and inter-industry spillovers from regional FDI. By contrast, it fails to establish any discernible relationship between domestic plants productivity and FDI outside the region. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. JEL classification: F23; R58; C14 Keywords: Foreign direct investment; Production functions; Spillovers; Regional development 1. Introduction The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically whether productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment are geographically limited, using plant-level data from the U.K. electronics sector. A significant proportion of Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) – the main form of regional subsidy in the U.K. – goes to foreign-owned firms (over 40% in the early 1990s according to Taylor and Wren, 1997). One prominent motivation for offering such incentives to foreign firms is the presumption that they stimulate aggregate productivity growth either directly through their own higher productivity growth or through an indirect spillover effect. It is therefore important to subject this