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Davies, Ronald B.
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Davies, Ronald B.
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Davies, Ronald B.
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Now showing 1 - 10 of 43
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Publication
Greenfield versus Merger & Acquisition FDI: Same Wine, Different Bottles?
2015-02, Davies, Ronald B., Desbordes, Rodolphe, Ray, Anna
Relying on a large foreign direct investment (FDI) transaction level dataset, unique
both in terms of disaggregation and time and country coverage, this paper examines
patterns in greenfield (GF) versus merger & acquisition (MA) investment. Although
both are found to seek out large markets with low international barriers, important differences emerge. MA is more affected by geographic and cultural barriers and exhibits
opportunistic behaviours as it is more sensitive to short-run changes, such as a currency crisis. On the other hand, GF is relatively driven by long-run factors, such as origincountry technological and institutional development or comparative advantage. These empirical facts are consistent with the conceptual distinction made between these two modes, i.e. MA involves transfer of ownership for integration or arbitrage reasons while GF relies on firms own capacities, which are linked to the origin countries attributes. They also suggest that GF and MA are likely to respond differently to policies intended to attract FDI.
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Is there an environmental benefit to being an exporter? Evidence from firm level data
2010-03, Batrakova, Svetlana, Davies, Ronald B.
One of the greatest concerns over globalisation is its impact on the environment. This paper contributes to this debate by analysing the consequences of becoming an exporter on a firm's energy consumption. We show both theoretically and empirically that for low fuel intensity firms exporting status is associated with higher fuel consumption while for high fuel intensity firms exporting is results in decreased fuel consumption. Further analysis reveals that higher fuel consumption of low fuel intensity firms occurs after exporting, perhaps as a response to increased production. In contrast, firms using relatively large quantities of fuel decrease their energy use after exporting, perhaps by adopting more fuel-effcient technology. These results indicate that the use of aggregate data, as is the case in almost all studies of trade and the environment, is likely to conceal important connections between the two.
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Tax competition in an expanding European Union
2008-11, Davies, Ronald B., Voget, Johannes
This paper empirically examines whether expansion of the EU has increased
international tax competition. To do so, we use a simple model of tax competition to
determine how a given country weights the taxes of others when choosing its own tax.
This indicates that the market potential of a country (which includes both domestic
consumption and exports) is the appropriate weight. This is an improvement on the adhoc
and often endogenous weighting schemes used elsewhere. Unlike those studies, we
find robust evidence for tax competition. In particular, our estimates suggest that EU
membership affects responses with EU members responding more to the tax rates of
other members. This lends credence to the above-noted concerns.
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Tariff-induced transfer pricing and the CCCTB
2013-09, Davies, Ronald B.
The common consolidated corporate tax base has been suggested as a way to curb tax
avoidance by allocating profits across borders via a formula. This paper demonstrates that when transfer pricing occurs both for tariff and tax minimization, that moving from separate accounting to formula apportionment can actually increase transfer pricing. This, combined with arm's length pricing regulations, can result in lower revenues for high-tax countries and lower overall revenues. This casts additional doubt over whether such a move would have its intended, revenue-enhancing effects.
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From China with Love: The Role of FDI from Third Countries on EU Competition and R&D Activities
2018-07, Davies, Ronald B.
This report presents empirical analysis on the linkage between mergers and acquisition FDI and acquirer innovation efforts. The data indicates that acquisitions tend to result in a spike in research in the two following years. This impact, however, is contingent on industrial linkages between target and acquirer. In particular, nonmanufacturing targets appear to have the largest impact. Further investigation using input-output linkages finds that acquirer R&D increases more when the target is a primary source of inputs for the acquirer. These effects, however, are smaller for Chinese acquirers, suggesting that concerns over whether acquisition of foreign technology is spurring faster Chinese technological growth may be misguided. Finally, these effects are smaller in more concentrated industries, suggesting the need to consider industry concentration when projecting the R&D implications of cross-border mergers.
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The Impact of Taxes on the Extensive and Intensive Margins of FDI
2016-08, Davies, Ronald B., Siedschlag, Iulia, Studnicka, Zuzanna
The design of optimal tax policy, especially with respect to attracting FDI, hinges on whether taxes affect multinational firms at the extensive or the intensive margins. Nevertheless, the literature has not yet explored the simultaneous impact of taxation on FDI on these two margins. Using firm-level cross-border investments into Europe during 2004-2013, we do so with a Heckman two-step estimator, an approach which also allows us to endogenize the number of investments and include home country and parent firm characteristics. We find that taxes affect both margins, particularly for firms that invest only once, with 92 percent of tax-induced changes in aggregate inbound FDI driven by movements at the extensive margin. In addition, we find significant effects of both home country and parent firm characteristics, pointing towards the granularity of investment decisions.
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Knocking on Tax Haven’s Door: Multinational Firms and Transfer Pricing
2014-12, Davies, Ronald B., Martin, Julien, Parenti, Mathieu, Toubal, Farid
This paper analyzes the transfer pricing of multinational firms. We propose a simple
framework in which intra-firm prices may systematically deviate from arm’s length
prices for two motives: i) pricing to market, and ii) tax avoidance. Multinational firms
may decide not to avoid taxes if the risk to be sanctioned is high compared to the
tax gap. Using detailed French firm-level data on arm’s length and intra-firm export
prices, we find that both mechanisms are at work. The sensitivity of intra-firm prices
to foreign taxes is reinforced once we control for pricing-to-market determinants. Most
importantly, we find almost no evidence of tax avoidance if we disregard exports to tax
havens. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that tax avoidance through transfer
pricing amounts to about 1% of the total corporate taxes collected by tax authorities
in France. The lion’s share of this loss is driven by the exports of 450 firms to ten
tax havens. As such, it may be possible to achieve significant revenue increases with
minimal cost by targeting enforcement.
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I’ve Been Everywhere (Except Mexico): Investor Responses to NAFTA’s Cross-Border Trucking Provisions
2015-01, Davies, Ronald B., Liebman, Benjamin H., Tomlin, Kasaundra
We investigate the response of US trucking firms to the removal of barriers to cross-border trucking under NAFTA. This was done via a program implemented in 2007, cancelled in 2009, and reinstated in 2011. We find that, unsurprisingly, the program’s start resulted in lower stock returns, particularly for border firms. However, later policy changes indicate that investors, and particularly those in US multinationals, viewed the pilot as beneficial. We use a model of endogenous exporting to show that this can arise from incorrect expectations of import competition.
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Greenfield FDI and skill upgrading
2012-03, Davies, Ronald B., Desbordes, Rodolphe
Globalisation is one of the primary accused culprits of growing income inequality in the developed world. In particular, outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) is often associated with general “skill upgrading" in the home country, that is, a shift in relative labour demand from low skilled workers towards more skilled workers. Nevertheless, the empirical evidence indicates that such effects are small at best, especially in contrast to those for overall trade in intermediates (which includes both intra-firm trade and foreign outsourcing). In response, we utilise a proprietary dataset on greenfield FDI. In contrast to M&A FDI, which can represent acquisition of new technologies or elimination of competitors, greenfield FDI may be more closely linked to skill
upgrading, especially when its done to take advantage of international differences in factor prices. Given that our data delineate FDI by function as well as by destination country, we are able to capture the different motives of FDI and to account for the fact that different functions in different countries may substitute for different skill levels at home. Using these data in conjunction with industry-level data on seventeen developed home countries, we find that greenfield FDI results in polarised skill upgrading, i.e. an increase in the relative share of employment and compensation of the most skilled workers to the detriment of the medium skilled workers. This impact is strongest for support services (e.g. call centres), knowledge services (e.g. R&D), and retail FDI with little indication of an impact from FDI in other functions. Our estimates suggest that
the change in the high skilled compensation share explained by support services is of the same order of magnitude as what is found in other studies for trade in services. Unlike those studies, however, we find that demand for medium skilled workers falls from outbound FDI whereas that of the lowest skilled workers remains unchanged. Thus, in contrast to overall trade in services
where globalisation leads to increased income inequality between the lowest skilled workers and other groups, increased outbound FDI leads to an increased gap between the most skilled and the moderately skilled workers. FDI then has parallels to the results from the labour literature estimating
the non-monotonic impacts on the demand for skills of computerisation and service offshoring.
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The Heterogeneous Impact of Brexit: Early Indications from the FTSE
2017-05, Davies, Ronald B., Studnicka, Zuzanna
The UK's decision to leave the EU is surrounded by several studies simulating its potential effects. Alternatively, we examine expectations embodied in stock returns using a two-part estimation process. While most firms' prices fell, there was considerable heterogeneity in their relative changes. We show that this heterogeneity can be explained by the firm's global value chain, with heavily European firms doing relatively worse. For firms with few imported intermediates, this was partially offset by a greater Sterling depreciation. These changes were primarily in the first two days and highly persistent. Understanding these movements gives a better understanding Brexit's potential effects.