Exporting versus direct investment under local sourcing Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • This paper examines a setting where foreign direct investment (FDI) shifts demand for an intermediate good from the source to the host country. A domestic and a foreign firm choose between exports or FDI, always sourcing the intermediate locally. We show that by increasing the price of the intermediate, outward FDI can act as a cost-raising strategy for a firm and that attracting FDI can raise host country welfare. Two-way FDI is the equilibrium when the countries have similar market sizes. However, such FDI reduces global welfare relative to two-way exporting since it eliminates indirect competition between suppliers. 2005 Kiel Institute for World Economics.

published proceedings

  • REVIEW OF WORLD ECONOMICS

author list (cited authors)

  • Glass, A. J., & Saggi, K.

citation count

  • 5

complete list of authors

  • Glass, AJ||Saggi, K

publication date

  • January 2005