摘要：We use a new firm level data set that establishes the location, ownership, and
activity of 650,000 multinational subsidiaries—close to a comprehensive picture
of global multinational activity. A number of patterns emerge from the data.
Most foreign direct investment (FDI) occurs between rich countries. The share of
vertical FDI (subsidiaries which provide inputs to their parent firms) is larger
than commonly thought, even within developed countries. More than half of all
vertical subsidiaries are only observable at the four-digit level because the
inputs they are supplying are so proximate to their parent firms’ final good
that they appear identical at the two-digit level. We call these proximate
subsidiaries ‘intra-industry’ vertical FDI and find that their location and
activity are significantly different to the inter-industry vertical FDI visible
at the two-digit level. These subsidiaries are not readily explained by the
comparative advantage considerations in traditional models, where firms locate
their low skill production stages abroad in low skill countries to take
advantage of factor cost differences. We find that overwhelmingly,
multinationals tend to own the stages of production proximate to their final
production giving rise to a class of high-skill intra-industry vertical FDI.
关键词：Multinational Activity, Foreign Direct Investment, Horizontal FDI, Vertical FDI,
Stages of Production
