This paper analyses the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the development of local firms. We focus on two likely of FDI: a competition effect which deters entry of domestic firms and positive market externalities which foster the development of local industry. Using a simple...

We investigate in how far foreign multinationals have fostered local indigenous development in Ireland. Specifically, we examine whether foreign presence has induced indigenous net plant entry within the same regions and in bordering regions. To this end we employ an entry rate model on an...

We examine the importance of a firm's own R&D activity and intra-sectoral spillovers on the decision to export and the export intensity using firm level panel data for Spain for the period 1990-98. Own R&D activity is found to be an important determinant of export activity. There is little...

In a recent study, Holmes and Stevens (2002) identify for the first time the positive relationship that exists between establishment scale and local industry concentration using a large cross-sectional plant-level data set for the United States. Using an exhaustive plant-level panel data set for...

We examine 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 plant survival rates differ between multinationals and indigenous plants. Second, we analyse whether...

This paper investigates the relationship between government support for R&D and R&D expenditure financed privately by firms using a comprehensive plant level data set for the manufacturing sector in the Republic of Ireland. We find that for domestic plants small grants serve to increase private...

We study the coagglomeration of domestic plants and foreign multinationals and the impact of this on domestic plant productivity and employment using data for Irish manufacturing. Relying on a recently developed index we find that coagglomeration has been important for a number of industries....

Despite a growing number of empirical studies on efficiency spillovers arising from the presence of multinational firms for a number of countries, general conclusions on this issue have been inhibited by differences in the data sets and estimation techniques used across studies. In this paper we...

This paper analyses empirically the link between regional inequalities and economic development. Our starting hypothesis in this regard is that the evolution of regional inequalities should follow a bell-shaped curve depending on the level of national economic development since growth by its...

We study the pattern of concentration of industries in EU countries and regions between 1972 and 1995. We find that changes in concentration levels were mainly due to industry mobility rather than historical accidents and past levels of concentration as often argued by the New Economic Geography...