Chinese Power and the State-Owned Enterprise

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Randall W. Stone ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
Shu Yu

Abstract China has become a leading source of outward foreign direct investment (FDI), and the Chinese state exercises a unique degree of influence over its firms. We explore the patterns of political influence over FDI using a comprehensive firm-level data set on Chinese outward FDI from 2000 to 2013. Using six country-level measures of affinity for China, we find that state-owned and globally diversified firms appear to conform most closely to official guidance. Official investment directives and state visits link investments to state policies; Taiwan recognition and Dalai Lama meetings anchor our political interpretations; and UN General Assembly voting and temporary UN Security Council membership suggest that this intervention may be systematic. The results are robust to country, year, and sector fixed effects, and most do not hold for private or small firms. The results suggest that China uses FDI by prominent state-owned enterprises as an instrument to promote its foreign policy.

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven-Olov Daunfeldt ◽  
Dan Johansson ◽  
Daniel Halvarsson

Purpose – High-growth firms (HGFs) have attracted an increasing amount of attention from researchers and policymakers, and the Eurostat-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) definition of HGFs has become increasingly popular. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a longitudinal firm-level data set to analyze the implications of using the Eurostat-OECD definition. Findings – The results indicate that this definition excluded almost 95 percent of surviving firms in Sweden, and about 40 percent of new private jobs during 2005-2008. Research limitations/implications – The proportion of small firms and their growth patterns differ across countries, and the authors therefore advise caution in using this definition in future studies. Practical implications – Policy based on the Eurostat-OECD definition of HGFs might be misleading or even counterproductive. Originality/value – No previous studies have analyzed the implications of using the Eurostat-OECD definition of HGFs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 414-446
Author(s):  
Pavel Chakraborty

AbstractExploiting a natural experiment involving the imposition of a technical regulation by Germany on Indian leather and textile industries in 1994, a firm-level data set is used to study the trade, adaptation and discontinuity effects and how they vary by firm size. It is found that: (a) regulation significantly increases the export revenues of a firm through use of new technology and high-quality imported raw materials – indicating a possible signalling effect; (b) this gain is concentrated only on the upper half of the firm size distribution, i.e., in the 3rd and 4th quartiles; (c) use of imported raw materials significantly explains low exit probabilities of a firm; and (d) there is evidence of a sorting effect – regulation significantly affecting the operation of small firms.


2021 ◽  
pp. 097172182110056
Author(s):  
Keungoui Kim ◽  
Junseok Hwang ◽  
Sungdo Jung ◽  
Eungdo Kim

Due to high uncertainty of product development and business environment, firm-level diversification has been regarded as one of the most effective methods in pharmaceutical firms. In previous study, firm-level diversification was discussed by different value chains of market, product, and technology. However, in most cases, the diversification itself was adopted in a simple manner although its property contains different aspects and the results varies depending on the diversity property of selected index. In addition, the existing approach for measuring firm’s product/market diversification using sales information distinguished by standard industry classification cannot provide direct implication as different strategies are made for market and product diversification. Therefore, this study examines the effects of firm-level diversification on business and innovation performances in pharmaceutical firms by considering (1) three diversification types: market, product, and technology, (2) clear separation between market and product diversification, and (3) two diversification perspectives: balance-centred and hetero-centred. For empirical analysis, an integrated firm-level data set combining from Medtrack, Orange Book, Compustat and Total Patent database is used. From the result, in case of market diversification, less market heterogeneity causes significant influence on business performance. For product and technology, a concentrated and greater heterogeneity of product diversification are turned out to promote business performance, while the more intensive and heterogeneous technology diversification has been shown to improve innovation performance.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arjan Reurink ◽  
Javier Garcia-Bernardo

Economic globalization has pressured countries to compete with one another for firms’ investment capital. Analyses of such competition draw heavily on foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics. In and of themselves, however, FDI statistics are merely a quantification of the value of firms’ investment projects and tell us little about the heterogeneity of these projects and the distinct patterns of competitive dynamics between countries they generate. Here, we create a more sophisticated understanding of international competition for FDI by pointing out its variegated nature. To do so, we trace the “great fragmentation of the firm” to distinguish between five categories of FDI: manufacturing affiliates, shared service centers, R&D facilities, intermediate holding companies, and top holding companies. Using a novel combination of firm-level and country-level data, we identify for each of these different categories which European Union member states are most successful in attracting it, what macro-institutional and tax arrangements are present in them, and what benefits they receive from it in terms of tax revenues and employment creation. In this way, we are able to identify five distinct “FDI attraction profiles” and show that competition increasingly appears to take place amongst subsets of countries that compete for similar categories of FDI.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R Faulkiner ◽  
Michael H Belzer

Large truck crashes remain a significant problem in the truckload sector of the US motor carrier industry. Employing a unique firm-level data set from a large US truckload motor carrier, we identified two different driver groups hired during two distinct pay regimes. Before-and-after data on wages and safety outcomes created a natural experiment. Higher wages paid to experienced drivers in the new pay regime led to higher driver retention rates. Experienced drivers had lower average crash costs and were more productive during each tenure month. Experienced drivers had a much larger expected discounted net present value when compared with inexperienced drivers. As the previously inexperienced drivers gained additional experience, their crash probabilities and their value began to mirror those of the experienced drivers, demonstrating the value of greater tenure. This research supports ‘safe rates’ public policy because safety pays – for trucking companies, for cargo owners and for society. JEL Codes: J24, J28, J33


2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 987-1006
Author(s):  
Vincent Arel-Bundock ◽  
Clint Peinhardt ◽  
Amy Pond

When do governments impose costs on foreign firms? Many studies of foreign direct investment focus on incentives for government expropriation, but scholars are often forced to rely on indirect measures of expropriation to conduct empirical analyses. This article introduces a data set which includes information on over 5,000 political risk insurance contracts issued by the US Overseas Private Investment Corporation since 1961, and on all the claims filed by investors under these contracts. These detailed insurance data allow us to study the determinants of foreign investors’ losses from a variety of sources, including expropriation, inconvertibility, and violent conflict. To illustrate the benefits of these data for hypothesis testing, we adopt a comprehensive empirical approach and explore both shared and distinct causes across risk categories.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-389
Author(s):  
Wilfried Kisling

Abstract The trade-finance nexus has enjoyed increasing interest in recent economic studies, but empirical evidence is scarce and studies from a historical perspective seem missing. This study analyses the effect of German bank entry on Brazilian coffee exports between 1880 and 1913 using firm-level data. I create an original data set on the yearly quantities of exported coffee and the credit received from the German Brasilianische Bank für Deutschland by export houses in Brazil. Using a difference-in-difference approach, I find that Brasilianische eased previously existing credit constraints, and that companies financed by Brasilianische exported significantly more than those that were not.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 194-212
Author(s):  
Saverio Minardi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of two-tier firm-level collective agreements on firms’ propensity to use temporary employment, accounting for the process of self-selection of firms into different bargaining levels in the Italian context. It further examines which firm-level characteristics drive this process of selection. Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis uses a panel data set of Italian firms for the years 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2015. Estimations are produced and compared through ordinary least square regression, random-effects and fixed-effects models. Findings Results show that enterprises adopting two-tier firm-level agreements (TTFA) are associated with lower levels of temporary workers. However, a longitudinal analysis suggests that introducing a TTFA does not impact firms’ propensity to employ temporary workers. This novel finding highlights the presence of a selection process based on firm-level time-constant characteristics. The paper argues that these characteristics refer to management orientation toward high-road rather than low-road employment strategies. Further evidence is brought in support of this claim, showing that firms’ propensity toward the provision of training for their labor force partially explain the process of selection. Originality/value The study is the first to analyze the impact of secondary-level collective agreements on firms’ reliance on temporary employment, offering new evidence on the causes of the expansion of temporary employment. It further highlights the relevance of employers’ strategies in shaping the impact of the bargaining structure.


2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Cannings

The dual-career family, with its attendant pressures for dual commitment to the home and to the career, has become an increasingly important phenomenon in recent decades. This paper uses a firm-level data set to examine the impact of family commitments as well as cognitive, behavioral, and organizational factors on the earnings of 519 married middle managers in a large Canadian corporation. Alongside a number of behavioral variables as well as the functional division of managerial labor in the company, division of labor in the employee's household has a significant impact on managerial earnings. The inclusion of a variable reflecting the household division of labor in the managerial earnings function helps to explain a substantial proportion of the earnings disadvantage of women in this company that might otherwise simply be attributed to gender.


2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Okeahalam ◽  
Mark Dowdeswell

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the relationship between South Africa's foreign direct investment (FDI) and economic fundamentals at the municipal level.Design/methodology/approachThe paper develops a data set and an econometric model to analyze FDI flows at the municipal level in South Africa.FindingsThe empirical results derived from municipal level data support the findings in some of the established literature (which for the most part uses country‐level data) and indicates: that FDI tends to flow to areas with high factor (capital, labour and land) productivity; and that increases in higher labour productivity lead to higher investment.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper has used a cross‐section of municipalities. A further area of research would be to carry out a similar exercise with panel data.Practical implicationsThese findings indicate that FDI flows can be considered at the municipal level and this justifies the need for careful selection of the geographic basis for economic policy and development planning.Originality/valueWhereas most studies on FDI use country‐level data as standard geographic units of analysis, this paper analyzes FDI flows at the municipal level.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document