How does FDI inflow affect productivity of domestic firms? The role of horizontal and vertical spillovers, absorptive capacity and competition

This paper examines the existence of externalities associated with FDI in a host country by exploiting firm-level panel data covering the Polish corporate sector. The main findings are as follows. Local firms benefit from foreign presence in the same industry and in downstream industries. Absorptive capacity of domestic firms is highly relevant to the size of spillovers. Competitive pressure facilitates backward spillovers, while market power increases the extent of forward spillovers. Host country equity participation in foreign firms is consistent with higher unconditional productivity spillovers to domestic firms.