Pär Hansson - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Pär Hansson
Umeå Economic Studies, 2009
Using a matching approach, we compare the productivity trajectories of future exporters and match... more Using a matching approach, we compare the productivity trajectories of future exporters and matched and unmatched non-exporters. Future exporters have higher productivity than do unmatched non-exporters before entry into the export market, which indicates self-selection into exports. More interestingly, we also find a productivity increase among future exporters relative to matched non-exporters 1-2 years before export entry. However, the productivity gap between future exporters and matched non-exporters does not continue to grow after export entry. Our results suggest that learning-to-export occurs but that learning-by-exporting does not. In contrast to previous studies on Swedish manufacturing, we focus particularly on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The World Economy, 2021
We examine the relationship between relative demands for skills, non-routine, and non-offshorable... more We examine the relationship between relative demands for skills, non-routine, and non-offshorable tasks in Swedish MNE parents (onshore) and their employment shares in affiliates abroad (offshore). Our estimations suggest that increased employment shares in affiliates abroad (offshore) result in higher relative demand for skills and larger shares of non-routine tasks performed by employed that are highly educated in the parents at home (onshore). However, we do not find any evidence for that the share of non-offshorable tasks rises in the parents of Swedish MNEs when employment shares increase in their affiliates overseas. Furthermore, we estimate the relationships between absolute employment onshore (skilled and less-skilled labour) and employment in affiliates offshore (high-and low-income countries). Increased employment in affiliates in lowincome countries relates negatively to the employment of less-skilled workers in manufacturing MNE parents (substitute), whereas increased employment in affiliates in high-income countries correlates positively with the employment of skilled workers in service MNE parents (complement). K E Y W O R D S multinational enterprises, non-routine and offshorable tasks, offshoring, relative labour demand, skill upgrading | 945 ELIASSON et al. 1 | INTRODUCTION Declining costs for transportation and for information and communication, together with lower barriers to international trade and investment, have led to the increased fragmentation of production within global value chains. 1 Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are highly instrumental in such processes. Within MNEs, some production stages of the value chains have been relocated to affiliates offshore (or outsourced to independent suppliers abroad), whereas others have been retained or even expanded in the parents at home (onshore). The purpose of this paper is to examine which activities Swedish MNEs-Swedish-owned enterprise groups with employees abroad −keep in the parents onshore when their affiliates overseas are expanding. In other words, we aim to investigate the relationship between outward foreign direct investment (FDI) and the onshore employment composition of Swedish MNEs. Previous studies, such as Head and Ries (2002) and Hansson (2005), have focused solely on skills measured, e.g. in terms of educational attainment of the employees. We also analyse the skill composition, but in addition, as in Becker et al. (2013), we study the impact of offshoring on the non-routine task content in the MNE parents. Routine tasks are activities accomplished by following a set of specific, well-defined rules, whereas non-routine tasks are more complicated activities, such as problem-solving and decisionmaking. Accordingly, several non-routine tasks may be too complex to be fully communicated to production teams in another country. Routine tasks are thus more easily fragmented geographically than non-routine tasks because they can be simply translated into instructions for the offshore producers. Hence, we expect the share of non-routine tasks to increase in the parents at home when MNEs are expanding their activities abroad. We use two commonly employed measures of the non-routineness of occupations to investigate the relationship between increased offshore activities in the affiliates of Swedish MNEs and the share of non-routine tasks in their onshore MNE parents. The first one, recently put to extensive use 2 but to our knowledge not in this context, is a routine task index of different jobs consisting of three aggregates: manual, routine, and abstract tasks. The second one, proposed and employed by Becker et al. (2013), is based on survey questions concerning whether the respondent workers use a listed workplace tool. A crucial difference between these two measures is that the former acknowledges that in certain middle skilled occupations the element of routine tasks is substantial, e.g. office clerks, and that in some low-skilled occupations the content of nonroutine tasks is considerable, e.g. drivers. Both measures are significantly correlated −especially the second one −with the share of skilled labour (skill intensity) on occupational level. Non-routineness is one factor that can determine the offshorability of a task. Another factor is the extent to which a task requires face-to-face contact with people other than fellow workers with no loss of quality. Blinder and Krueger (2013) define offshorability as: "the ability to perform one's work duties (for the same employer and customers) in a foreign country but still supply the good or service to the home market". This implies that also a variety of tasks carried out by highly skilled workers can possibly be offshored via telecommunication devices, e.g. computer
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Jan 19, 2001
This paper studies the link between production transfer in Swedish-headquartered multinational en... more This paper studies the link between production transfer in Swedish-headquartered multinational enterprises (MNEs) and skill upgrading in Swedish manufacturing in the 1990s. The analysis distinguishes between horizontal and vertical foreign direct investment (FDI). The increased employment share in affiliates in non-OECD countries (vertical FDI) has a non-trivial, significantly positive effect on the share of skilled labour in the Swedish parents. On the other hand, the skill upgrading in the parents is unrelated to employment changes in their affiliates in other OECD countries (horizontal FDI). The latter is consistent with implications of the newly developed horizontal MNE models.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of foreign acquisitions on the productivity o... more The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of foreign acquisitions on the productivity of acquired Swedish firms. However, because an acquisition is an opportunity to restructure a business and because such changes, in turn, can result in increased productivity, the effects may be observed in other outcome variables. Therefore, we also study the effects after an acquisition on employment, share of skilled labor, and export and import intensities in Swedish firms taken over by foreign multinationals (MNEs). As we examine the effects on both acquired manufacturing and service firms, we also analyze the effects in small firms, e.g., those with one or more employees. To control for the possible endogeneity of foreign direct investment decisions, propensity score matching is combined with a difference-in-difference approach. The positive effects on productivity, the share of skilled labor, employment and the export and import intensities of foreign acquisitions are most pronounc...
The employment in Sweden has become more concentrated to the larger cities in Sweden (Stockholm, ... more The employment in Sweden has become more concentrated to the larger cities in Sweden (Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö). This paper investigates whether Swedish multinational enterprises (MNEs) have contributed to that development. We examine the association between offshoring within Swedish MNEs and changes their parent employment at regional level (in local labor market regions, LA-regions). The relation may vary depending on: (i) the characteristics of the region (large city, regional center or other region) or (ii) the type of labor (skilled or less-skilled) or the type of job (routine or non-routine) in the parent. Our results reveal large spatial heterogeneities in the relationships between MNE offshoring and onshore employment in various regions. The results suggest that MNE offshoring might be a factor contributing to diverging onshore employment among Swedish regions; increased (unchanged) employment in larger cities and unchanged (decreased) employment in regional centers and other regions. Moreover, MNE offshoring seems to contribute to increased localization of skilled activities and non-routine tasks to larger cities. We use enterprise data on employment in the parents and the affiliates overseas in Swedish controlled enterprise groups with affiliates abroad (Swedish MNEs). Parent employment data are available for different regions in Sweden, skilled and less-skilled labor, as well as for various occupations.
ABSTRACT Walter Korpi har i en artikel i Ekonomisk Debatt gjort ett ambitiöst försök att med hjäl... more ABSTRACT Walter Korpi har i en artikel i Ekonomisk Debatt gjort ett ambitiöst försök att med hjälp av tillgänglig OECD-statistik motbevisa den numera spridda uppfattningen att Sverige på senare tid haft en klart långsammare tillväxt än andra jämförbara industriländer. Syftet med denna artikel är att granska om det finns belägg för Korpis hänvisning till upphinnarfaktorn som förklaring till Sveriges relativt till OECD låga tillväxt under 1970- och 1980-talen. Slutsatsern är att några sådana belägg inte finns. Det betyder att risken är stor att Sveriges svaga tillväxt kommer att leda till att vi blir både upphunna och omsprungna av allt fler industriländer.
Hur omfattande är direktinvesteringarna inom tjänstesektorn och hur har de utvecklats på senare å... more Hur omfattande är direktinvesteringarna inom tjänstesektorn och hur har de utvecklats på senare år? Vilken inverkan har offshoring av tjänster på produktivitet och sysselsättning? Hur påverkas sysselsättningens yrkes- och utbildningssammansättning i de svenska moderföretagen, och följaktligen vilken typ av verksamhet blir kvar i Sverige, när svenska multinationella företag expanderar i sina dotterföretag utomlands? Detta är några av rapportens frågeställningar.
De multinationella företagen spelar en ledande roll när det gäller den forskning och utveckling (... more De multinationella företagen spelar en ledande roll när det gäller den forskning och utveckling (FoU) som bedrivs inom näringslivet och Sverige utgör inget undantag i det avseendet. Det finns idag i de flesta länder ett starkt intresse att försöka förmå multinationella företag att investera hos dem, särskilt inom FoU, eftersom detta antas främja tillväxt och sysselsättning samt öka tillgången på ny kunskap och teknologi i landet. I rapporten studerar vi svenska multinationella koncerners FoU och hur den fördelar sig på moderföretagen i Sverige och deras dotterföretag i utlandet. I vilken omfattning har det skett en ökad geografisk spridning av FoU inom de svenska multinationella koncernerna? Har den andel av koncernernas totala FoU utgifter som bedrivs i de svenska moderföretagen minskat över tiden? Skiljer sig mönstret för FoU från det vi kan se beträffande sysselsättningen inom dessa koncerner? I rapporten genomförs även en ekonometrisk analys på koncernnivå bland svenska multinat...
Multinational enterprises (MNEs) play a leading role when it comes to the research and developmen... more Multinational enterprises (MNEs) play a leading role when it comes to the research and development (R&D) carried out within the business sector, and Sweden is no exception. In most countries today there is a high level of interest in making MNEs invest there, particularly in terms of R&D, as it is assumed to promote growth and employment, as well as increasing access to new knowledge and technology within the country. The report studies the R&D of Swedish MNEs and how it is distributed between the parent companies in Sweden and their affiliates abroad. To what extent has there been an increased geographical dispersion internationally of R&D within the Swedish MNEs? Has the proportion of the enterprises’ total R&D expenditures carried out in the Swedish parents decreased over time? Does the pattern for R&D differ from what we can observe regarding employment within these enterprises? To quantify which localisation factors that are decisive of attracting investment in R&D an econometr...
European Economic …, 1999
The paper evaluates the impact of technology together with resource endowments, factor prices and... more The paper evaluates the impact of technology together with resource endowments, factor prices and economies of scale on international competitiveness in OECD countries. Knowledge capital stocks are obtained by cumulating R&D expenditure. Results show that ...
By using a matching approach we compare productivity trajectories of future exporters, matched, a... more By using a matching approach we compare productivity trajectories of future exporters, matched, and unmatched non-exporters. Future exporters have higher productivity than unmatched non-exporters before entry on the export market, which indicates self-selection into exports. More interestingly, we also find a productivity increase in future exporters relative to matched non-exporters 1-2 years before export entry. However, the productivity gap between future exporters and matched non-exporters do not continue to grow after export entry. Our results suggest that there exist learning-to-export but not learning-by-exporting. In contrast to previous studies on Swedish manufacturing we focus, in particular, on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
We observe a substantial increase of foreign ownership in Sweden in the 1990s. Did that have any ... more We observe a substantial increase of foreign ownership in Sweden in the 1990s. Did that have any effect on relative demand for skilled labor? Has technology transfers − often associated with inward FDI − led to increased demand for skills due to skilled-biased technical change? Are there any grounds for the worries in the public Swedish debate that more skilled activities have been moved abroad to countries where the headquarters are located? We obtain support for that the share of skilled labor tends to rise in non-multinationals − but not in multinationals − that become foreign owned. Yet it does not seem to be any relationship between increased foreign ownership and the relative demand for skilled labor in Swedish manufacturing between 1986 and 2000. Interestingly, increased competition from low-wage countries, rather than inward FDI, has had significant impact on skill upgrading, and appears to have played a larger role in the 1990s than before. JEL classification: F23, J23, J31
I denna artikel diskuteras vilka samhällsekonomiska motiv som kan ligga bakom exportfrämjande åtg... more I denna artikel diskuteras vilka samhällsekonomiska motiv som kan ligga bakom exportfrämjande åtgärder och huruvida det finns empiriskt stöd för sådana. Vår slutsats är att även om det finns både teoretiska argument och empiriska belägg för att offentligt finansierade satsningar på exportfrämjande åtgärder har effekt, överskattas sannolikt dessa insatsers betydelse.
... eller genum aitt tekniskai LARS LUNDBERG fir furskare vie! ... okad global produktionsspeciali... more ... eller genum aitt tekniskai LARS LUNDBERG fir furskare vie! ... okad global produktionsspecialise-ring har darfor sannolikt varit hogrc un-der l95()~ och 60-talen an senarc och kan i det narmaste helt ha upphort eller tom hlivit negativa under 1970-talet.4 Delta kan dock for vissa ...
This paper studies the link between production transfer in Swedish-headquartered multinational en... more This paper studies the link between production transfer in Swedish-headquartered multinational enterprises (MNEs) and skill upgrading in Swedish manufacturing in the 1990s. The analysis distinguishes between horizontal and vertical foreign direct investment (FDI). The increased employment share in affiliates in non-OECD countries (vertical FDI) has a non-trivial, significantly positive effect on the share of skilled labor in the Swedish parents. On the other hand, the skill upgrading in the parents is unrelated to employment changes in their affiliates in other OECD countries (horizontal FDI). The latter is consistent with implications of the newly developed horizontal MNE models. Key words: Multinational enterprises, skill upgrading, horizontal foreign direct
Umeå Economic Studies, 2009
Using a matching approach, we compare the productivity trajectories of future exporters and match... more Using a matching approach, we compare the productivity trajectories of future exporters and matched and unmatched non-exporters. Future exporters have higher productivity than do unmatched non-exporters before entry into the export market, which indicates self-selection into exports. More interestingly, we also find a productivity increase among future exporters relative to matched non-exporters 1-2 years before export entry. However, the productivity gap between future exporters and matched non-exporters does not continue to grow after export entry. Our results suggest that learning-to-export occurs but that learning-by-exporting does not. In contrast to previous studies on Swedish manufacturing, we focus particularly on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The World Economy, 2021
We examine the relationship between relative demands for skills, non-routine, and non-offshorable... more We examine the relationship between relative demands for skills, non-routine, and non-offshorable tasks in Swedish MNE parents (onshore) and their employment shares in affiliates abroad (offshore). Our estimations suggest that increased employment shares in affiliates abroad (offshore) result in higher relative demand for skills and larger shares of non-routine tasks performed by employed that are highly educated in the parents at home (onshore). However, we do not find any evidence for that the share of non-offshorable tasks rises in the parents of Swedish MNEs when employment shares increase in their affiliates overseas. Furthermore, we estimate the relationships between absolute employment onshore (skilled and less-skilled labour) and employment in affiliates offshore (high-and low-income countries). Increased employment in affiliates in lowincome countries relates negatively to the employment of less-skilled workers in manufacturing MNE parents (substitute), whereas increased employment in affiliates in high-income countries correlates positively with the employment of skilled workers in service MNE parents (complement). K E Y W O R D S multinational enterprises, non-routine and offshorable tasks, offshoring, relative labour demand, skill upgrading | 945 ELIASSON et al. 1 | INTRODUCTION Declining costs for transportation and for information and communication, together with lower barriers to international trade and investment, have led to the increased fragmentation of production within global value chains. 1 Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are highly instrumental in such processes. Within MNEs, some production stages of the value chains have been relocated to affiliates offshore (or outsourced to independent suppliers abroad), whereas others have been retained or even expanded in the parents at home (onshore). The purpose of this paper is to examine which activities Swedish MNEs-Swedish-owned enterprise groups with employees abroad −keep in the parents onshore when their affiliates overseas are expanding. In other words, we aim to investigate the relationship between outward foreign direct investment (FDI) and the onshore employment composition of Swedish MNEs. Previous studies, such as Head and Ries (2002) and Hansson (2005), have focused solely on skills measured, e.g. in terms of educational attainment of the employees. We also analyse the skill composition, but in addition, as in Becker et al. (2013), we study the impact of offshoring on the non-routine task content in the MNE parents. Routine tasks are activities accomplished by following a set of specific, well-defined rules, whereas non-routine tasks are more complicated activities, such as problem-solving and decisionmaking. Accordingly, several non-routine tasks may be too complex to be fully communicated to production teams in another country. Routine tasks are thus more easily fragmented geographically than non-routine tasks because they can be simply translated into instructions for the offshore producers. Hence, we expect the share of non-routine tasks to increase in the parents at home when MNEs are expanding their activities abroad. We use two commonly employed measures of the non-routineness of occupations to investigate the relationship between increased offshore activities in the affiliates of Swedish MNEs and the share of non-routine tasks in their onshore MNE parents. The first one, recently put to extensive use 2 but to our knowledge not in this context, is a routine task index of different jobs consisting of three aggregates: manual, routine, and abstract tasks. The second one, proposed and employed by Becker et al. (2013), is based on survey questions concerning whether the respondent workers use a listed workplace tool. A crucial difference between these two measures is that the former acknowledges that in certain middle skilled occupations the element of routine tasks is substantial, e.g. office clerks, and that in some low-skilled occupations the content of nonroutine tasks is considerable, e.g. drivers. Both measures are significantly correlated −especially the second one −with the share of skilled labour (skill intensity) on occupational level. Non-routineness is one factor that can determine the offshorability of a task. Another factor is the extent to which a task requires face-to-face contact with people other than fellow workers with no loss of quality. Blinder and Krueger (2013) define offshorability as: "the ability to perform one's work duties (for the same employer and customers) in a foreign country but still supply the good or service to the home market". This implies that also a variety of tasks carried out by highly skilled workers can possibly be offshored via telecommunication devices, e.g. computer
RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, Jan 19, 2001
This paper studies the link between production transfer in Swedish-headquartered multinational en... more This paper studies the link between production transfer in Swedish-headquartered multinational enterprises (MNEs) and skill upgrading in Swedish manufacturing in the 1990s. The analysis distinguishes between horizontal and vertical foreign direct investment (FDI). The increased employment share in affiliates in non-OECD countries (vertical FDI) has a non-trivial, significantly positive effect on the share of skilled labour in the Swedish parents. On the other hand, the skill upgrading in the parents is unrelated to employment changes in their affiliates in other OECD countries (horizontal FDI). The latter is consistent with implications of the newly developed horizontal MNE models.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of foreign acquisitions on the productivity o... more The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of foreign acquisitions on the productivity of acquired Swedish firms. However, because an acquisition is an opportunity to restructure a business and because such changes, in turn, can result in increased productivity, the effects may be observed in other outcome variables. Therefore, we also study the effects after an acquisition on employment, share of skilled labor, and export and import intensities in Swedish firms taken over by foreign multinationals (MNEs). As we examine the effects on both acquired manufacturing and service firms, we also analyze the effects in small firms, e.g., those with one or more employees. To control for the possible endogeneity of foreign direct investment decisions, propensity score matching is combined with a difference-in-difference approach. The positive effects on productivity, the share of skilled labor, employment and the export and import intensities of foreign acquisitions are most pronounc...
The employment in Sweden has become more concentrated to the larger cities in Sweden (Stockholm, ... more The employment in Sweden has become more concentrated to the larger cities in Sweden (Stockholm, Göteborg and Malmö). This paper investigates whether Swedish multinational enterprises (MNEs) have contributed to that development. We examine the association between offshoring within Swedish MNEs and changes their parent employment at regional level (in local labor market regions, LA-regions). The relation may vary depending on: (i) the characteristics of the region (large city, regional center or other region) or (ii) the type of labor (skilled or less-skilled) or the type of job (routine or non-routine) in the parent. Our results reveal large spatial heterogeneities in the relationships between MNE offshoring and onshore employment in various regions. The results suggest that MNE offshoring might be a factor contributing to diverging onshore employment among Swedish regions; increased (unchanged) employment in larger cities and unchanged (decreased) employment in regional centers and other regions. Moreover, MNE offshoring seems to contribute to increased localization of skilled activities and non-routine tasks to larger cities. We use enterprise data on employment in the parents and the affiliates overseas in Swedish controlled enterprise groups with affiliates abroad (Swedish MNEs). Parent employment data are available for different regions in Sweden, skilled and less-skilled labor, as well as for various occupations.
ABSTRACT Walter Korpi har i en artikel i Ekonomisk Debatt gjort ett ambitiöst försök att med hjäl... more ABSTRACT Walter Korpi har i en artikel i Ekonomisk Debatt gjort ett ambitiöst försök att med hjälp av tillgänglig OECD-statistik motbevisa den numera spridda uppfattningen att Sverige på senare tid haft en klart långsammare tillväxt än andra jämförbara industriländer. Syftet med denna artikel är att granska om det finns belägg för Korpis hänvisning till upphinnarfaktorn som förklaring till Sveriges relativt till OECD låga tillväxt under 1970- och 1980-talen. Slutsatsern är att några sådana belägg inte finns. Det betyder att risken är stor att Sveriges svaga tillväxt kommer att leda till att vi blir både upphunna och omsprungna av allt fler industriländer.
Hur omfattande är direktinvesteringarna inom tjänstesektorn och hur har de utvecklats på senare å... more Hur omfattande är direktinvesteringarna inom tjänstesektorn och hur har de utvecklats på senare år? Vilken inverkan har offshoring av tjänster på produktivitet och sysselsättning? Hur påverkas sysselsättningens yrkes- och utbildningssammansättning i de svenska moderföretagen, och följaktligen vilken typ av verksamhet blir kvar i Sverige, när svenska multinationella företag expanderar i sina dotterföretag utomlands? Detta är några av rapportens frågeställningar.
De multinationella företagen spelar en ledande roll när det gäller den forskning och utveckling (... more De multinationella företagen spelar en ledande roll när det gäller den forskning och utveckling (FoU) som bedrivs inom näringslivet och Sverige utgör inget undantag i det avseendet. Det finns idag i de flesta länder ett starkt intresse att försöka förmå multinationella företag att investera hos dem, särskilt inom FoU, eftersom detta antas främja tillväxt och sysselsättning samt öka tillgången på ny kunskap och teknologi i landet. I rapporten studerar vi svenska multinationella koncerners FoU och hur den fördelar sig på moderföretagen i Sverige och deras dotterföretag i utlandet. I vilken omfattning har det skett en ökad geografisk spridning av FoU inom de svenska multinationella koncernerna? Har den andel av koncernernas totala FoU utgifter som bedrivs i de svenska moderföretagen minskat över tiden? Skiljer sig mönstret för FoU från det vi kan se beträffande sysselsättningen inom dessa koncerner? I rapporten genomförs även en ekonometrisk analys på koncernnivå bland svenska multinat...
Multinational enterprises (MNEs) play a leading role when it comes to the research and developmen... more Multinational enterprises (MNEs) play a leading role when it comes to the research and development (R&D) carried out within the business sector, and Sweden is no exception. In most countries today there is a high level of interest in making MNEs invest there, particularly in terms of R&D, as it is assumed to promote growth and employment, as well as increasing access to new knowledge and technology within the country. The report studies the R&D of Swedish MNEs and how it is distributed between the parent companies in Sweden and their affiliates abroad. To what extent has there been an increased geographical dispersion internationally of R&D within the Swedish MNEs? Has the proportion of the enterprises’ total R&D expenditures carried out in the Swedish parents decreased over time? Does the pattern for R&D differ from what we can observe regarding employment within these enterprises? To quantify which localisation factors that are decisive of attracting investment in R&D an econometr...
European Economic …, 1999
The paper evaluates the impact of technology together with resource endowments, factor prices and... more The paper evaluates the impact of technology together with resource endowments, factor prices and economies of scale on international competitiveness in OECD countries. Knowledge capital stocks are obtained by cumulating R&D expenditure. Results show that ...
By using a matching approach we compare productivity trajectories of future exporters, matched, a... more By using a matching approach we compare productivity trajectories of future exporters, matched, and unmatched non-exporters. Future exporters have higher productivity than unmatched non-exporters before entry on the export market, which indicates self-selection into exports. More interestingly, we also find a productivity increase in future exporters relative to matched non-exporters 1-2 years before export entry. However, the productivity gap between future exporters and matched non-exporters do not continue to grow after export entry. Our results suggest that there exist learning-to-export but not learning-by-exporting. In contrast to previous studies on Swedish manufacturing we focus, in particular, on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
We observe a substantial increase of foreign ownership in Sweden in the 1990s. Did that have any ... more We observe a substantial increase of foreign ownership in Sweden in the 1990s. Did that have any effect on relative demand for skilled labor? Has technology transfers − often associated with inward FDI − led to increased demand for skills due to skilled-biased technical change? Are there any grounds for the worries in the public Swedish debate that more skilled activities have been moved abroad to countries where the headquarters are located? We obtain support for that the share of skilled labor tends to rise in non-multinationals − but not in multinationals − that become foreign owned. Yet it does not seem to be any relationship between increased foreign ownership and the relative demand for skilled labor in Swedish manufacturing between 1986 and 2000. Interestingly, increased competition from low-wage countries, rather than inward FDI, has had significant impact on skill upgrading, and appears to have played a larger role in the 1990s than before. JEL classification: F23, J23, J31
I denna artikel diskuteras vilka samhällsekonomiska motiv som kan ligga bakom exportfrämjande åtg... more I denna artikel diskuteras vilka samhällsekonomiska motiv som kan ligga bakom exportfrämjande åtgärder och huruvida det finns empiriskt stöd för sådana. Vår slutsats är att även om det finns både teoretiska argument och empiriska belägg för att offentligt finansierade satsningar på exportfrämjande åtgärder har effekt, överskattas sannolikt dessa insatsers betydelse.
... eller genum aitt tekniskai LARS LUNDBERG fir furskare vie! ... okad global produktionsspeciali... more ... eller genum aitt tekniskai LARS LUNDBERG fir furskare vie! ... okad global produktionsspecialise-ring har darfor sannolikt varit hogrc un-der l95()~ och 60-talen an senarc och kan i det narmaste helt ha upphort eller tom hlivit negativa under 1970-talet.4 Delta kan dock for vissa ...
This paper studies the link between production transfer in Swedish-headquartered multinational en... more This paper studies the link between production transfer in Swedish-headquartered multinational enterprises (MNEs) and skill upgrading in Swedish manufacturing in the 1990s. The analysis distinguishes between horizontal and vertical foreign direct investment (FDI). The increased employment share in affiliates in non-OECD countries (vertical FDI) has a non-trivial, significantly positive effect on the share of skilled labor in the Swedish parents. On the other hand, the skill upgrading in the parents is unrelated to employment changes in their affiliates in other OECD countries (horizontal FDI). The latter is consistent with implications of the newly developed horizontal MNE models. Key words: Multinational enterprises, skill upgrading, horizontal foreign direct