Technology transfers, foreign investment and productivity spillovers

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

This paper explores the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and the productivity of host country domestic firms. We rely on a specially designed survey of over 4000 manufacturing firms in Vietnam, and separate out productivity gains along the supply chain (obtained through direct transfers of knowledge/technology between linked firms) from productivity effects through indirect FDI spillovers. In addition to identifying indirect vertical productivity spillovers from FDI, our results show that there are productivity gains associated with direct linkages between foreign-owned and domestic firms along the supply chain not captured by commonly used measures of spillovers. This includes evidence of productivity gains through forward linkages for domestic firms which receive inputs from foreign-owned firms.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Economic Review
Volume76
Pages (from-to)168-187
Number of pages20
ISSN0014-2921
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Bibliographical note

JEL classification: D22; F21; O12; O3

ID: 146206383