Wages and Foreign Ownership: A Comparative Study of Mexico, Venezuela and the United States

Brian Aitken, Ann E. Harrison and Robert E. Lipsey ()

No 5102, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between wages and foreign investment in Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States. Despite very different economic conditions and levels of development, we find one fact which is robust across all three countries: higher levels of foreign investment are associated with higher wages. In Mexico and Venezuela, foreign investment was associated with higher wages only for foreign-owned firms -- there is no evidence of wage spillovers leading to higher wages for domestic firms. In the United States there is evidence of wage spillovers. The lack of spillovers in Mexico and Venezuela is consistent with significant wage differentials between foreign and domestic enterprises. In the United States, wage differentials are smaller.

JEL-codes: F23 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997-06
Note: ITI
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Related works:
Working Paper: Wages and Foreign Ownership: A Comparative Study of Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States (1995)
Journal Article: Wages and foreign ownership A comparative study of Mexico, Venezuela, and the United States (1996)
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