This paper focuses on the role of absorptive capacity in determining whether or not domestic establishments benefit from productivity spillovers from FDI. We analyse this issue using establishment level data for the electronics and engineering sectors in the UK. We distinguish the effect of FDI...

Recent empirical works on the within-sector impact of inward investments on domestic firms' productivity have found rather robust evidence of no (or even negative) effects. This paper argues that a specification error might characterise those studies. In fact, measuring foreign presence as the...

In recent years the British government has spent substantial sums in order to attract foreign multiinationals to the UK. Amongst other things this has been motivated by the possibility that foreign multinationals bring with them new technologies which may "spill over" to the economy. The present...

In this paper we analyse productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment using firm level panel data UK manufacturing industries from 1992 to 1999. We investigate spillovers through horizontal, backward and forward linkages, distinguish spillovers from export oriented vs domestic market...

We investigate the impact of international outsourcing on productivity using plant level data for Irish manufacturing. Specifically, we distinguish the effect of outsourcing of materials from services inputs. Moreover, we examine whether the impact on productivity is different for plants being...