The Effect of Foreign Direct Investment on Labour Productivity : Evidence from Estonia and Slovenia

This paper studies the effects of foreign direct investment on labour productivity in manufacturing industries of two transition countries, Estonia and Slovenia. The emphasis is on the dimension of export/local market orientation. The study is based on firm-level panel data. It is shown that in Estonia the export oriented foreign investment enterprises have on average much lower labour productivity level than the domestic market oriented foreign affiliates. In Slovenia, on the contrary, the export orientation of a foreign affiliate is not correlated with lower labour productivity. No horizontal spillovers of foreign direct investment to domestic firms are detected in Estonia. In Slovenia, however, positive spillovers to domestic firms are found but there is no indication of spillovers to other foreign affiliates. The findings show that different types of foreign direct investment can have different effects on the host country and that the existence of positive spillovers may depend on the level of economic development of the host country