Global Production Sharing and the FDI–Trade Nexus: New Evidence from the Japanese Automobile Industry

The growing importance of global production sharing makes the nexus between outward foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade in parts and components ever more important. This paper examines the impact of overseas operation of upstream firms (parts and components suppliers) on parts and components exports from the home country through a case study of the Japanese automobile industry. The empirical analysis is based on a newly-constructed product-level dataset covering 32 products and 49 host countries over the period 1993 to 2008. It is found that overseas operation of upstream firm lead to additional exports of intermediate goods from the home country. This finding runs counter to the the popular view that the growing overseas activity of multinational enterprises could replace intermediate exports from a home country, thereby depriving the home country of job opportunities.