Foreign Direct Investment and Knowledge Diffusion in Poor Locations

Girum Abebe, Margaret McMillan and Michel Serafinelli ()
Additional contact information
Michel Serafinelli: King's College London

No 13422, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We use a plant level survey to identify interactions between domestic plants and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Ethiopia's manufacturing sector. One third of Ethiopian plants are linked to FDI through labor sharing, supply chains and competition. Technology upgrading most commonly occurs as a result of competition in output markets and observation and imitation of FDI in the same line of business. Other benefits include enhanced managerial practices and knowledge about exporting. Spillovers from FDI are identified by comparing changes in total factor productivity (TFP) among domestic plants in districts where a large greenfield foreign plant produces and districts where FDI in the same industry and around the same time was licensed but not yet operational. Over the four years starting with the year of the FDI opening, the TFP of domestic plants is 11 percent higher in treated districts, employment in domestic plants increases and more domestic plants open.

Keywords: local economic development; productivity and technology; Foreign Direct Investment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 F21 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int and nep-knm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Published - published in: Journal of Development Economics, 2022, 158, 102926

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Related works:
Journal Article: Foreign direct investment and knowledge diffusion in poor locations (2022)
Working Paper: Foreign Direct Investment and Knowledge Diffusion in Poor Locations (2019)
Working Paper: Foreign Direct Investment and Knowledge Diffusion in Poor Locations (2018)
Working Paper: Foreign Direct Investment and Knowledge Diffusion in Poor Locations
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