Cross-border mergers and domestic-firm wages: Integrating spillover effects and bargaining effects

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Clougherty, Joseph A.; Gugler, Klaus; Sorgard, Lars; Szuecs, Florian W.
• 署名单位: University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Vienna University of Economics & Business; Norwegian School of Economics (NHH); Leibniz Association; DIW Berlin - Deutsches Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2506
• DOI: 10.1057/jibs.2014.2
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 450-470
• 关键词: multinational corporations (MNCs) and enterprises (MNEs); Foreign direct investment; bargaining; econometrics; spillovers; wages

摘要

Two literatures exist concerning cross-border merger activity's impact on domestic wages: one focusing on positive spillover effects; the other focusing on negative bargaining effects. Motivated by scarce theoretical scholarship spanning these literatures, we nest both mechanisms in a single conceptual framework. Considering the separate phenomena of inward and outward cross-border merger activity, our theoretical model generates three formal propositions: cross-border mergers can lead to wage increases via positive spillover effects; and negative bargaining effects are relatively more dominant when union market power is high, and when merging firms exhibit relatedness. Employing US firm-level panel data on wages combined with industry-level data on unionization and merger activity (covering 1989-2001), we find support for our propositions as inward and outward cross-border merger activity generate positive spillovers to wages, but are more likely to generate firm-level wage decreases when unionization rates are high and when cross-border merger activity is characterized as horizontal. Accordingly, future research on how cross-border mergers affect domestic wages should be mindful that both spillover and bargaining effects are at play, and that the degree of union market power and the relatedness of cross-border merger activity are critical in determining which effect dominates.