Multinational firms and productivity catching-up: the case of Chilean manufacturing. (15th October 2007)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Alvarez, Roberto; Crespi, Gustavo
• Is Part Of: International journal of technological learning, innovation and development. Volume 1:Number 2(2007)
• Page Start: 136
• Page End: 152
• Publication Date: 2007-10-15
• Subjects: technology transfer -- total factor productivity -- TFP -- catching-up -- multinational corporations -- MNCs -- Chile -- manufacturing plants; Organizational learning -- Periodicals; Technological innovations -- Economic aspects -- Periodicals; Industrial organization -- Technological innovations -- Developing countries -- Periodicals; Diffusion of innovations -- Developing countries -- Periodicals; 338.064091724
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1753-1942

Abstract

In this paper, we study Total Factor Productivity (TFP) catching-up using 20 years of plant-level data for Chilean manufacturing. This paper addresses two key issues: first, we analyse whether there is evidence that low-productivity plants experience higher TFP growth than those closer to the technology frontier. Second, we investigate the role of multinational plants in accelerating the catching-up process by non-frontier domestic plants. Our results show evidence of productivity catching-up, and that a larger presence of multinationals positively contributes to this phenomenon. These findings are consistent with the idea of technology spillovers from high to low-productivity plants or that a higher presence of multinationals increase competitiveness and productivity in domestic markets.