Foreign-owned firms around the world: A comparative analysis of wages and employment at the micro-level

Alexander Hijzen, Pedro Martins, Thorsten Schank and Richard Upward

European Economic Review, 2013, vol. 60, issue C, 170-188

Abstract: This paper provides the first microeconomic cross-country analysis of the effects of foreign ownership on wages, employment and worker turnover rates. Using firm-level and linked worker-firm data, we apply a standardised methodology for three developed (Germany, Portugal, UK) and two emerging economies (Brazil, Indonesia). We find that wage effects are larger in developing countries, and that for each country the largest effect on wages comes from workers who move from domestic to foreign firms. Employment growth after foreign takeover is concentrated in high-skill jobs. In contrast to widespread fears, there is no evidence that wage gains come at the expense of greater job insecurity; separation rates actually fall slightly after takeover. We conclude that the positive effect of foreign ownership on wages is not primarily driven by its impact on incumbent wages, but by its impact on the creation of high-wage jobs.

Keywords: Foreign direct investment; Foreign wage premia; Multinational enterprises (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 F23 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (125)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014292113000172
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Do Foreign-Owned Firms Provide Better Working Conditions Than Their Domestic Counterparts? A Comparative Analysis (2010)
Working Paper: Do foreign-owned firms provide better working conditions than their domestic counterparts? A comparative analysis (2010)
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:eee:eecrev:v:60:y:2013:i:c:p:170-188

DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2013.02.001

Access Statistics for this article

European Economic Review is currently edited by T.S. Eicher, A. Imrohoroglu, E. Leeper, J. Oechssler and M. Pesendorfer

More articles in European Economic Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().