Is there Really a Foreign Ownership Wage Premium? Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data

Numerous studies based on firm-level data have reported higher average wages in foreign-owned firms than in domestically-owned firms. This, however, does not necessarily imply that the individual worker’s wage increases with foreign ownership. Using detailed matched employer-employee data, we examine the effect of foreign ownership on individual wages, controlling for individual and firm heterogeneity as well as for possible selection bias in foreign acquisitions. We distinguish between foreign greenfields and takeovers and compare foreign ownership with both domestic multinationals and local firms. Our results indicate that employees in foreign-owned firms do not have systematically higher wages than comparable workers in similar Swedish owned firms.