Foreign Direct Investment and the Diffusion of Knowledge

外商直接投资和知识的扩散

One of the primary benefits of foreign investment for a host country is exposure to advanced foreign processes,management practices, and designs. In principle, this exposure should enhance the competitiveness of domestic firms, who will benefit from the technology transfers that arise in the form of higher productivity and expanded innovative capacity. China’s foreign investment policy is grounded in such a premise, as the original proponents of the outward-looking foreign investment policies that began in the late 1970s argue that opening up to foreign investment is the most efficient way to obtain foreign technology.

对东道国来说，外商投资的主要好处之一是可以接触到国外先进的操作方法、管理方法和设计。原则上来讲，这应该可以提高国内公司的竞争力，它们将从以提高生产力和扩大创新能力的形式出现的技术转让中获益。中国的对外投资政策就是基于这样一个前提，上世纪70年代末开始实行的外向型投资政策的支持者认为，向外国投资开放是获得外国技术的最有效途径。

A sizable literature has uncovered evidence on the existence of such technology transfer effects. The foundational studies in this area – for example, those of Javorcik (2004) or Keller and Yeaple(2009) – show that FDI generates broad knowledge spillovers on host country firms as multinational investors transfer their technology and methods to their foreign affiliates. These effects are diffused both directly and indirectly to domestic firms, who, as levels of foreign investment increases, tend to exhibit higher levels of productivity or engage in more knowledge creation.