Effects of foreign acquisitions on R&D and high-skill activities

Kent Eliasson (), Pär Hansson () and Markus Lindvert ()
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Kent Eliasson: Growth Analysis and Department of Economics, Umeå University,, Postal: Growth Analysis, Studentplan 3, 831 40 Östersund, Department of Economics, Umeå University, , 901 87 Umeå
Markus Lindvert: Growth Analysis, Postal: Growth Analysis, Studentplan 3, 831 40 Östersund

No 2015:2, Working Paper Series, Center for Labor Studies from Uppsala University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Using Swedish micro data we find no evidence for the concerns circulating in the public debate that foreign acquisitions lead to reductions in R&D expenditures and high-skilled activities in targeted domestic firms, neither in MNEs nor in non-MNEs. Previous studies have only focused on larger firms. In this paper we are able to study the impact on smaller firms (less than 50 employees). This is important since 90 percent of the firms acquired by foreign enterprises have less than 50 employees. For this group of firms there is no information on R&D, but by using the register of educational attainment we have data on the share of high-skilled labor in all Swedish firms, irrespective of size. Interestingly, we find that among smaller firms foreign enterprises tend to acquire high-productive, skill-intensive firms (cherry-picking) and after the acquisitions skill upgrading appears in acquired smaller, non-MNE firms.

Keywords: foreign acquisitions; skill upgrading; R&D intensity; propensity score matching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F23 J24 O32 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2015-11-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-eur, nep-ino and nep-knm
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Related works:
Journal Article: Effects of foreign acquisitions on R&D and high-skill activities (2017)
Working Paper: Effects of foreign acquisitions on R&D and high-skill activities (2015)
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