Multinationals and U.S. Productivity Leadership: Evidence from Great Britain
利用新数据集首次识别英国本土跨国公司，发现美国子公司生产率高于英国跨国公司，但与非美国外资子公司相当；动态分析表明，美国优势源于收购高生产率英国工厂，而非共享优越资产。
We study the productivity of U.S. and other foreign-owned plants in the United Kingdom. Using a new data set that can identify for the first time domestic U.K. MNEs in such a study, we find that U.K. MNEs are less productive than U.S. affiliates, but as productive as non-U.S. foreign affiliates. Exploiting dynamic variation in our data, we find evidence suggesting that this additional U.S. advantage is due to the takeover of already highly productive U.K. plants rather than the sharing of superior firm-specific assets. The study also features a novel approach to TFP calculation. Copyright by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.