Scandinavian Working Papers in Business Administration
Working Papers,
Örebro University, School of Business
No 2015:10: Effects of foreign acquisitions on R&D and high-skill activities
Kent Eliasson (), Pär Hansson () and Markus Lindvert ()
Additional contact information
Kent Eliasson: Umeå University and Growth Analysis, Postal: Growth Analysis, Studentplan 3, SE-831 40 Östersund, and Department of Economics, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå
Pär Hansson: Örebro University School of Business, Postal: Örebro University, School of Business, SE - 701 82 ÖREBRO, Sweden
Markus Lindvert: Growth Analysis, Postal: Growth Analysis, Studentplan 3, SE-831 40 Östersund
Abstract: Using Swedish micro data we find no evidence for the concerns circulating in the public debate that foreign acquisitions lead to reductions in R&D expenditures and high-skilled activities in targeted domestic firms, neither in MNEs nor in non-MNEs. Previous studies have only focused on larger firms. In this paper we are able to study the impact on smaller firms (less than 50 employees). This is important since 90 percent of the firms acquired by foreign enterprises have less than 50 employees. For this group of firms there is no information on R&D, but by using the register of educational attainment we have data on the share of high-skilled labor in all Swedish firms, irrespective of size. Interestingly, we find that among smaller firms foreign enterprises tend to acquire high-productive, skill-intensive firms (cherry-picking) and after the acquisitions skill upgrading appears in acquired smaller, non- MNE firms.
Keywords: foreign acquisitions; skill upgrading; R&D; intensity; propensity score matching
34 pages, November 17, 2015
Full text files
wp10-2015.pdf
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