Labor market implications of multinational enterprises

Abstract

In this dissertation, the labor market implications of increased foreign Firm activity in the local economy are studied by using a heterogeneous matching model framework. There are a number of unskilled and skilled job seekers, and a number of job vacancies posted by local and foreign firms. In this set up, where all workers can engage in on-the-job search, equilibrium conditions and Nash bargaining approach allows derivation of wages for different types of workers and Firms. Results suggest that wages are a weighted average of labor productivity and unemployment benefit, where the weight depends on the bargaining power of the workers, labor market tightness and the mass of local and foreign vacancies. Results suggest that levels of wages paid by the foreign Firm need not always be greater than that paid by the local Firm. In fact, the wage differential is found to depend on relative costs, skill endowment and the technological gap between local and foreign Firms. An increase in the foreign presence, measured as an increase in the extent of foreign Firm vacancy creation, can occur because of an exogenous change in cost of job creation- public policy, technological improvements and skill upgrading. In this context, depending on the cause of an increase in foreign presence we end up with differential relative wage effects. On the other hand, skill intensity of the foreign Firms and restrictions on labor mobility from foreign to local Firms play a crucial role in explaining wage differentials and unemployment.