Multinational Firms in the World Economy

By R. Cooper, G. B. Navaretti, Anthony J. Venables. 2004

677 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Depending on one's point of view, multinational enterprises are either the heroes or the villains of the globalized economy. Governments compete fiercely for foreign direct investment by such companies, but complain when firms go global and move their activities elsewhere. Multinationals are seen by some as threats to national identities and wealth and are accused of riding roughshod over national laws and of exploiting cheap labor. However, the debate on these companies and foreign direct investment is rarely grounded on sound economic arguments. This book brings clarity to the debate. With the contribution of other leading experts, Giorgio Barba Navaretti and Anthony Venables assess the determinants of multinationals' actions, investigating why their activity has expanded so rapidly, and why some countries have seen more such activity than others. They analyze their effects on countries that are recipients of inward investments, and on those countries that see multinational firms moving jobs abroad. The arguments are made using modern advances in economic analysis, a case study, and by drawing on the extensive empirical literature that assesses the determinants and consequences of activity by multinationals. The treatment is rigorous, yet accessible to all readers with a background in economics, whether students or professionals. Drawing out policy implications, the authors conclude that multinational enterprises are generally a force for the promotion of prosperity in the world economy.

Subfields: Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/75b1131880bf53d2dfe7c86a7c0d229bb1644239

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Citations in the corpus

FDI as an Outcome of the Market for Corporate Control: Theory and Evidence (2008, background): “A smaller, but growing, literature considers FDI in the form of cross-border M&A. Barba Navaretti and Venables (2004) distinguish M&A from greenfield by assuming that merged firms eliminate one of the varieties and the associated fixed costs of the joining firms.”
Foreign ownership and productivity: new evidence from the service sector and the R&D lab (2004, background): “textbook expositions of this framework include Barba Navaretti, Venables et al. (2004) and”
Multinationals and Plant Exit: Evidence from Chile (2005, neutral): “Much of the academic work has focussed on the question of detecting “productivity spillovers”, the potential labour market effects of multinationals, as well as macroeconomic growth effects of FDI (see, for example, Gorg & Greenaway, 2004; Barba Navaretti & Venables, 2004 for reviews of this liter”
Could the Irish Miracle be Repeated in Hungary? (2007, background): “In explaining the decision to invest in Ireland, executives of newly arriving firms in sectors such as computers, instrument engineering, pharmaceuticals and chemicals cite that their location decision is strongly influenced by the fact that other key market players were located in Ireland (Naverett”
Location Choice and Employment Decisions: A Comparison of German and Swedish Multinationals (2005, background): “11 For a discussion of the role of geographical distance in empirical studies of FDI, see Barba Navaretti and Venables (2004: Chapter 6) . Becker/Ekholm/Jackle/Muendler: Location Choice and Employment Decisions 717”
Multinationals in the Czech Motor Vehicles Industry: A General Equilibrium Analysis for a Transition Economy (2011, background): “Capital is modelled as a specific factor in order to proxy the frequent conclusion in the literature that MNEs have some ‘specific assets’ and ‘ownership advantages’, compared to national firms (Hymer 1976; Barba Navaretti & Venables 2004; Markusen 1995, 2002; Helpman 2006).”
Asymmetric Effects of Corruption on FDI: Evidence from Swedish Multinational Firms (2008, methodology): “12 For a thorough discussion of the determinants of FDI, and the proxies used in the literature, see Barba Navaretti and Venables (2004).”
Organized crime, the quality of local institutions and FDI in Italy: A panel data analysis (2011, background): “The empirical literature on FDI determinants is extensive (Barba Navaretti and Venables, 2004).”
Skilled Migration and Business Networks (2010, background): “However, as many stages of the production process can be relocated in countries where the cost of labor 4For a more precise de…nition see Barba Navaretti and Venables, 2004 is low and as new markets are emerging all around the world, other less developed countries have also bene…ted from large inves”