Call for Papers: Norface Seminar II: FDI and the Globalisation of European Labour Markets

                            CALL FOR PAPERS

                          NORFACE SEMINAR II:
         FDI AND THE GLOBALISATION OF EUROPEAN LABOUR MARKETS

                          University of Munich
                          24 - 25 October 2008

                          Principal Organizers:
                 Monika Schnitzer (University of Munich)
                 Karolina Ekholm (Stockholm University)
              Soren Bo Nielsen (Copenhagen Business School)

                    This seminar is funded by Norface

                  Deadline for submission: 16th May 2008


      SEMINAR II: FDI AND THE GLOBALISATION OF EUROPEAN LABOUR
      MARKETS

      The workshop will consist of 8-10 papers. The travel and
      accommodation expenses of presenters and discussants will
      be covered. Submissions from NORFACE member countries are
      especially encouraged. The deadline for submissions is
      Friday May 16th 2008: please send your paper or detailed
      abstract in PDF format to:

      Email:       MAILTO:info@europeglobalisation.eu

      by Friday, 16th May 2008. The programme will be selected by
      mid-June 2008.


      OVERVIEW:

      The following aspects of international employment patterns
      will be addressed to gain further insights into this topic
      and to deduce policy implications:

      (1) The degree of substitutability of labor across
          locations. The home employment effects of FDI depend on
          whether the newly created jobs in the host country and
          employment in the home country are substitutes or
          complements. There are several empirical studies
          investigating this issue, most of them find that
          affiliate employment tends to complement rather than to
          substitute for employment in the parent firm. This
          holds intuitively in particular for qualified jobs in
          the parent firm since the wage gap between skilled and
          unskilled labour seems to be higher in Eastern Europe.
          A hotly debated question is, whether the old Europe is
          specialising on the high skilled parts of the value
          chain whereas the unskilled parts are reallocated to
          the new Europe.
      (2) Short run vs. long run effects of FDI. So far, few
          datasets allow distinguishing between the short run
          effects of FDI on employment and the long run effects.
          We discuss the importance and possible handling of this
          problem for further theoretical and empirical
          conclusions.
      (3) Multinational SMEs. The home employment effects of
          firms investing abroad have been discussed in several
          theoretical and empirical investigations. Yet there are
          few findings concerning especially the increasing
          international activities of small and medium-sized
          enterprises (SME's) and the related employment effects
          following a foreign direct investment. In the course of
          decreasing transportation and communication costs FDI
          became a feasible and lucrative activity for SME's.
          Given that SME's account for a high share of jobs in
          Europe it would be important to gain further insights
          in their performance abroad.
      (4) Counterfactual situation. What would have happened to
          investing firms if they had not invested abroad? Do
          expanding multinational enterprises retain more
          domestic jobs than competitors without foreign
          expansions? Recent studies attempt to answer this
          question by using propensity score matching methods.
      (5) Incoming vs. outgoing FDI flows. Multinational activity
          in Eastern Europe and in developing countries is mostly
          unilateral whereas for industrialised countries
          bilateral FDI linkages dominate. The question is to
          what extent possible gains by inward FDI compensate for
          job losses due to outward FDI.
      (6) FDI and domestic investment. To assess long term
          employment effects it is important to study the
          relation and possible interdependencies between FDI and
          domestic investment. Previous empirical work on the
          link between domestic and foreign investment provides
          mixed results. By using semi-aggregated data instead of
          aggregated or firm-level data for the investigation it
          is possible to shed new light on this issue.


      PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

      Please send your paper to:

      Email:       MAILTO:info@europeglobalisation.eu

      by Friday, 16th May 2008.


      PROGRAMME COMMITTEE:

      Monika Schnitzer (University of Munich), Karolina Ekholm
      (Stockholm University), Soren Bo Nielsen (Copenhagen
      Business School).


      SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE FOR SEMINAR SERIES:

      Philip Lane (Trinity College Dublin); Karolina Ekholm
      (Stockholm University); Harry Huizinga (Tilburg
      University); Igor Masten (University of Ljubljana); Steve
      Redding (Centre for Economic Performance, London School of
      Economics); Soren Bo Nielsen (Copenhagen Business School);
      Monika Schnitzer (University of Munich).

      Future workshops in this series will focus on Firms in
      International Trade: Evidence and Implications for Europe
      (to be hosted by the Centre for Economic Performance,
      London School of Economics).
Posted 4/7/08