How International Experience Helps Shape Labor Market Outcomes

Carl Davidson, Fredrik Heyman, Steven Matusz, Fredrik Sjöholm and Susan Chun Zhu
Additional contact information
Carl Davidson: Michigan State University
Susan Chun Zhu: Michigan State University

No 1453, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: This paper explores the influence of experience in foreign-owned firms on worker mobility, with a focus on Swedish companies acquired by foreign multinationals. We posit that international experience, by imparting knowledge about foreign operations, enhances an employee’s appeal to multinational enterprises (MNEs). By matching acquired firms with comparable control firms and utilizing a stacked difference-in-differences estimation methodology, we observe a significant impact of foreign acquisitions on job mobility. Our results indicate that foreign acquisitions raise the likelihood of a job switch to an MNE by approximately 4 percentage points, while concurrently decreasing the probability of a switch to a local firm by around 5 percentage points. Additional analyses reveal that the positive effect on mobility to MNEs is driven by learning opportunities stemming from increased trade linkages within multinational production networks and the implementation of advanced technologies subsequent to an acquisition. Furthermore, the post-acquisition wage growth rate is found to be significantly higher for workers transitioning to MNEs compared to those remaining at the acquired firms, suggesting a steeper wage growth trajectory for employees moving to MNEs.

Keywords: Multinational firms; Foreign acquisitions; Job mobility; International experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 F66 J60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 72 pages
Date: 2022-12-22, Revised 2024-06-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.ifn.se/wfiles/wp/wp1453.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1453

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics Research Institute of Industrial Economics, Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Elisabeth Gustafsson ().