TY - JOUR
T1 - Does a firm with higher Tobin's q prefer foreign direct investment to foreign outsourcing?
AU - Jinji, Naoto
AU - Zhang, Xingyuan
AU - Haruna, Shoji
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank an anonymous reviewer for his/her usel comments and suggestions on an earlier version of this study. The authors also thank the Research and Statistics Department of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) for granting permission to access firm-level data from METI's surveys. Financial support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science under the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) Nos. 23330081 and 16H03619 is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies. Declarations of interest: none.
PY - 2019/11
Y1 - 2019/11
N2 - In this study, we investigate whether firms’ choices of offshoring modes vary according to their characteristics that are reflected in the value of Tobin's q. When a firm chooses its offshoring mode from foreign outsourcing (FO) and foreign direct investment (FDI), a model developed by Chen, Horstmann, and Markusen (2012, Canadian Journal of Economics) predicts that Tobin's q is negatively associated with the share of FO in total offshoring activities. Using detailed Japanese firm-level data, we find that Tobin's q is negatively and significantly correlated with the share of Japanese firms’ engagement in FO in the sum of FO and FDI. With regard to our empirical methodology, we employ fractional regression models, because our dependent variable (i.e., the share of FO) is bounded between zero and one. We also address the issue of endogeneity by using a simple two-step method to control endogenous explanatory variables in the fractional regression models. We show that the above finding is robust.
AB - In this study, we investigate whether firms’ choices of offshoring modes vary according to their characteristics that are reflected in the value of Tobin's q. When a firm chooses its offshoring mode from foreign outsourcing (FO) and foreign direct investment (FDI), a model developed by Chen, Horstmann, and Markusen (2012, Canadian Journal of Economics) predicts that Tobin's q is negatively associated with the share of FO in total offshoring activities. Using detailed Japanese firm-level data, we find that Tobin's q is negatively and significantly correlated with the share of Japanese firms’ engagement in FO in the sum of FO and FDI. With regard to our empirical methodology, we employ fractional regression models, because our dependent variable (i.e., the share of FO) is bounded between zero and one. We also address the issue of endogeneity by using a simple two-step method to control endogenous explanatory variables in the fractional regression models. We show that the above finding is robust.
KW - Foreign direct investment
KW - Foreign outsourcing
KW - Fractional regression model
KW - Tobin's q
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U2 - 10.1016/j.najef.2019.101044
DO - 10.1016/j.najef.2019.101044
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85071097906
SN - 1062-9408
VL - 50
JO - North American Journal of Economics and Finance
JF - North American Journal of Economics and Finance
M1 - 101044
ER -