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  • August 2012
  • Article
  • American Economic Journal: Economic Policy

Surviving the Global Financial Crisis: Foreign Ownership and Establishment Performance

By: Laura Alfaro and Maggie Chen
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Abstract

We examine the differential response of establishments to the recent global financial crisis with particular emphasis on the role of foreign ownership. Using a worldwide establishment panel dataset, we investigate how multinational subsidiaries around the world responded to the crisis relative to local establishments. We find that first, multinational subsidiaries fared on average better than local counterfactuals with similar economic characteristics. Second, among multinational subsidiaries, establishments sharing stronger vertical production and financial linkages with parents exhibited greater resilience. Finally, in contrast to the crisis period, the effect of foreign ownership and linkages on establishment performance was insignificant in non-crisis years.

Keywords

Globalization; Financial Crisis; Multinational Firms And Management; Data And Data Sets; Business Subsidiaries; Production; Finance; Performance; Ownership

Citation

Alfaro, Laura, and Maggie Chen. "Surviving the Global Financial Crisis: Foreign Ownership and Establishment Performance." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4, no. 3 (August 2012): 30–55. (Also NBER Working Paper No. 17141.)
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About The Author

Laura Alfaro

General Management
→More Publications

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More from the Authors
  • On the Direct and Indirect Real Effects of Credit Supply Shocks By: Laura Alfaro, Manuel García-Santana and Enrique Moral-Benito
  • Latam Airlines and COVID-19: Seeking Bankruptcy Protection in the United States By: Laura Alfaro
  • Reserve Accumulation, Sovereign Debt, and Exchange Rate Policy By: Laura Alfaro and Fabio Kanczuk
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