We develop a model to analyze the implications of firing costs on incentives for R & D and international specialization. The key idea is that, to avoid paying firing costs, the country with a rigid labor market will tend to produce relatively secure goods, at a late stage of their product life...

We analyse 446 location decisions of foreign affiliates in the R&D sector incorporated in the European Union over 1999-2006. Our results suggest that on average, the location probability increases with the size of demand, agglomeration economies, low production cost, R&D intensity, flexibility...