Are foreign owned firms more productive? Evidence from Swedish firm data

This paper analyzes the difference between foreign and domestic ownership of firms with respect to productivity. The analysis is performed using a panel of firm data from Statis- tics Sweden, covering the entire manufacturing sector in the 1990:s. First we show that, other things equal, foreign-owned firms have higher labor productivity as well as total factor productivity than domestic firms. We also find that Swedish multinational firms are as productive as foreign-owned firms. Then we show that the rate of growth in productivity is higher in foreign-owned firms. We find no evidence for reverse causality.Foreign ownership; productivity