Joint foreign ownership and global value chains effects on productivity : a comparison of firms from Poland and Germany

The study confronts the joint effects of foreign ownership and its involvement in global value chains (GVC) on the productivity performance of firms from a catching-up country (Poland) and a leader economy (Germany). Domestic owned firms are less productive than foreign ones, which is particularly true at low GVC participation levels. However, as GVC involvement increases, the foreign ownership productivity premium decreases, leading to productivity catching up between foreign and domestic owned firms. This mechanism is similar in Poland and Germany. However, in the leader country (Germany), domesticallyowned firms' productivity performance is more stable along the GVC distribution.