Foreign direct investment, R&D and spillover efficiency: Evidence from Taiwan's manufacturing firms
利用台湾企业数据，研究发现外商直接投资和研发对生产率有正向溢出效应，且企业会自我选择是否从事研发，纠正选择偏差后，外商直接投资、本地技术购买和对外投资与研发活动存在替代关系。
Using Taiwanese firm‐level data, we confirm that foreign direct investment and R&D have a positive impact, or spillover effect, on productivity. Furthermore, labour quality, firm size, market structure, and export orientation all affect a firm's productivity. Applying Heckman's [1976] two‐stage estimation method, we find that firms self‐select into R&D or non‐R&D groups. After correcting for this selection bias, we find that foreign direct investment, local technology purchase, and outward foreign investment are substitutes to R&D activity. These results are mainly due to the significant effect of industry‐wide technology spillovers. The major policy implications derived from this study are that governments in developing countries may first wish to adopt policies encouraging foreign direct investment to foster technology transfer and industry‐wide knowledge spillovers in the short run. However, once the country's technological capability is established it appears critical to switch towards policies that provide a preferred environment to stimulate R&D investment (for example, infrastructure improvement and protection of intellectual property rights) to allow for sustainable economic growth.