Economic Slowdowns, Hazard Rates and Foreign Ownership

Vera Rocha, Celeste Varum, Hélder Valente da Silva

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This paper evaluates the link between foreign ownership and firm exit during crises, using a longitudinal micro dataset over an 18-year period. We address two main questions: first, if foreign affiliates have different failure rates than domestic firms during economic downturns, and second if the foreignness effect differs between two different economic downturns. The results partially confirm the liability of foreignness argument, suggesting that when the crisis was more pronounced at home than abroad, the differences in hazard rates between foreign and domestic firms reduce. The footloose argument is also only partially confirmed. For policy makers, our results on survival dynamics during crises are not against policies stimulating inward investment. There is no need to fear that foreign firms destabilize more than usual the host economy during economic slowdowns by immediately closing down operations.
Original languageEnglish
JournalInternational Business Review
Volume23
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)761-773
ISSN0969-5931
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Economic Slowdowns
  • Foreign Ownership
  • Hazard Rates
  • Manufacturing
  • Portugal

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