Avenues of technology transfer: Foreign investment and productivity change in the Czech Republic

Arbeitspapier

Firm-level data for the Czech Republic during 1992-96 suggest that foreign investment has tended to flow to firms of above average size, initial profitability and initial labor productivity. After controlling for this selection bias, we find that foreign investment has a positive, but statistically insignificant, impact on TFP (Total Factor Productivity) growth. This is surprising, given that there is a presumption that foreign investors should be transferring new technologies and knowledge to partner firms. Spillovers associated with a foreign investment presence in an industry are found to be negatively correlated with domestic firm performance, while imports are found to have a significant positive effect on TFP growth of such firms. We conclude that trade (imports) appears to have played an important role as a channel for improved performance of Czech enterprises.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Nota di Lavoro ; No. 16.1998

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity ; Empirical Studies of Trade ; Industrial Policy ; Socialist Enterprises and Their Transitions
• Subject: Czech Republic ; Foreign investment ; Technology transfer ; Technologietransfer ; Direktinvestition ; Produktivität ; Unternehmenserfolg ; Tschechische Republik

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Djankov, Simeon ; Hoekman, Bernard Marco
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM)
• (where): Milano
• (when): 1998

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/154874
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET