對外投資廠商是否一定是生產力較高的廠商？──當技術移轉成本存在時

Are FDI Firms Always More Productive? The Role of Technology Transfer Costs

與跨國委外生產相比，對外投資須負擔較高的沉入成本（sunk costs），因此傳統文獻多認為生產力較高的廠商會選擇對外投資，生產力次之的廠商會選擇進行委外生產。本文發現若考慮技術移轉成本以及組織成本時，上述結論只有在產業處於發展初期時才能成立；但隨著產業越趨成熟，高生產力的廠商反而會選擇委外生產，至於低生產力的廠商則選擇對外投資。本文將此一對外投資廠商的生產力與產業發展程度呈現負相關的現象，稱作對外投資循環（FDI cycle）。

In contrast to mainstream literature, which maintains that more productive firms in the industry prefer FDI to outsourcing, we find in this paper that the opposite may also be true. By incorporating technology transfer and organizational costs in the model, we show that the decision made by productive firms to engage in FDI depends crucially on the maturity level of the industry. An FDI cycle emerges from this model, illustrating a negative relationship between industry maturity and the productivity of investing firms. Our statistical test on Taiwan’s manufacturing firms supports our argument.