Some Twins are Not Alike : FDI Premia in the Former Soviet States

In this paper, we estimate Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) premia of firms from three distinctive groups of former Soviet states, designated CIS, Developed and Developing. Using Orbis data, we provide within-group and between-group results on the effects of outward FDI (OFDI) and inward FDI (IFDI) on firm-level innovation. As the most notable finding, OFDI firms innovate more than IFDI firms, which in turn innovate more than non-FDI firms. The innovation effect of OFDI is the largest for firms from the Developing economies, followed by the Developed and CIS countries. The innovation effect of IFDI is the largest for firms from the Developing economies, followed by the CIS and Developed countries. FDI to and from Europe have the largest impact on innovation; this holds across country groups