We develop a model with two asymmetric countries. Firms choose the number and the location of plants that they operate. The production of each firm increases when trade costs fall. The fall also induces multinationals to repatriate their production into a single country, which is likely to be...

Recent initiatives to hold back cross-border mergers and acquisitions for 'strategic' reasons have made headline news. We discuss whether the initiatives may mark the start of a new protectionist era. We argue that standard globalization indicators show no such signs. However, an increasing...

This paper examines whether multinational companies are more footloose than their domestic counterparts in the host country, using data for the Irish manufacturing sector. First, we investigate whether survival rates differ between multinationals and indigenous plants. Second, we analyse whether...

This paper studies the internationalization behaviour of French companies, using more than 330.000 observations for three two-year intervals. We analyze the role of productivity, organisational and ownership structure, and of financial characteristics for the decision to enter into and exit from...

This paper provides empirical evidence on the relationship between cross-border acquisitions and innovation activities at the firm level. In contrast to previous studies that analyze the effects on innovation in target firms, this paper investigates the effects on the investing firms. For the...

This paper provides empirical evidence on the effects of cross-border M&As on investing firms' domestic performance in the U.K. and France. We build a new firm-level dataset that combines a global M&A database with balance sheet data for the years 2000-2007. Combining matching techniques with a...

Being international' has nearly become an undisputed aim for firms in a globalized world. Several papers find a positive relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and the home performance of firms. In this paper we address the 'FDI - export' relationship to better understand this...

We analyze the link between firms' access to finance and their decisions to enter and exit the export market. We employ the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) conducted in 2005 and 2008-2009 to 28 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. We find that more...

We consider an argument that it might be helpful to combat poverty in developing countries indirectly by enlisting firms' help (as corporate citizens) in reducing corruption. It turns out that this argument crucially depends on a fair number of presmises, including (a) a common interest of firms...