Size of foreign direct investment and firm characteristics

Size, Geography, and Foreign Direct Investment∗

This paper analyzes the cross-country distribution and volume of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), its barriers, and its impact on welfare. From the observed patterns of FDI, three facts stand out: a very small fraction of countries engages in FDI; geography remains a significant impediment to FDI; countries’ size is important in determining the existence and volume of bilateral FDI. I present a...

Firm Heterogeneity , Exporting and Foreign Direct Investment : A Survey

A new literature on firm heterogeneity and firm level globalisation strategies has developed rapidly over the last decade. New insights on why some firms export and others do not, why some firms fail to survive in export markets and why some choose to produce overseas rather than export have been generated. This paper provides a survey and evaluation of this literature. It reviews both new theo...

Firm Productivity and Foreign Direct Investment into Non-Core Activities

Income Distribution, Market Size, and Foreign Direct Investment∗

This paper studies the role of the host country’s market size in the determination of foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade flows in a general equilibrium model. We propose a simple model with non-homothetic consumer behavior where the distribution of income in the host country implies market segmentation. Facing a proximity-concentration trade-off, in equilibrium ex-ante identical firms ch...

Firm Size, Finance, and Investment

T here is something in our national consciousness that looks fondly upon the small firm. This affection for small business is not entirely unwarranted. Small firms account for an important part of economic activity.1 A vast majority of all businesses in the United States are small; over 90 percent have fewer than 20 employees. Small firms accounted for between 40 and 50 percent of GNP and over ...