Ari Kokko
Copenhagen Business School, CBS, INT, Faculty Member
- Technology transfer, International Trade, Economics of Innovation, Foreign Aid, Asian Business, Multinational Corporations, and 7 moreEconomic Growth, Asian Studies, Business and Politics of Multi-national Corporations, Development Economics, Offshoring, International Economics, and International Developmentedit
- Professor at the Department of International Economics, Government and Business, Copenhagen Business School. Keenly i... moreProfessor at the Department of International Economics, Government and Business, Copenhagen Business School. Keenly interested in international economics, trade, FDI, development, and many other topics. Extensive experience of research on East Asian economic development and internationalization, but also trade, investment, and growth in Europe.edit
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Centre for Strategic and International Studies. 2014. Dampak FTA di Indonesia: Studi dan Hasil Survei Perspektif Bisnis 2013 [The impact of FTA in Indonesia: Study and business perspectives survey 2013] Jakarta: Centre for Strategic and... more
Centre for Strategic and International Studies. 2014. Dampak FTA di Indonesia: Studi dan Hasil Survei Perspektif Bisnis 2013 [The impact of FTA in Indonesia: Study and business perspectives survey 2013] Jakarta: Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Eichengreen, Barry. 2007. The European Economy since 1945. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Hayakawa, Kazunobu, Daisuke Hiratsuka, Kohei Shiino, and Seiya Sukegawa. 2009. ‘Who Uses Free Trade Agreements?’. ERIA Discussion Paper Series 22, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia, Jakarta. Park, Donghyun, Innwon Park, and Gemma Esther B. Estrada. 2008. ‘Prospects for an ASEAN–People’s Republic of China Free Trade Area: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis’. ADB Economics Working Paper Series 130, Asian Development Bank, Manila.
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This paper examines the role of wholesale firms as facilitators of exports for small and medium-sized Swedish businesses. Our findings suggest that wholesale firms do facilitate access to difficult markets located outside Europe. For... more
This paper examines the role of wholesale firms as facilitators of exports for small and medium-sized Swedish businesses. Our findings suggest that wholesale firms do facilitate access to difficult markets located outside Europe. For exports of a particular good to a given market, we observe a positive correlation between the export volumes of wholesale and manufacturing firms. Finally, we present evidence that supports a prediction from recent trade models with differentiated firms, namely that wholesale firms can facilitate exports for firms that are not themselves capable of direct exports.
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This article examines the distribution of antidumping (AD) disputes across countries and industries, and examines which AD cases reach the dispute settlement system of the WTO. Our general finding is that neither the country nor the... more
This article examines the distribution of antidumping (AD) disputes across countries and industries, and examines which AD cases reach the dispute settlement system of the WTO. Our general finding is that neither the country nor the industry distribution of AD cases remains constant across the different levels of disputes, as cases proceed from notifications to requests for consultations and third party adjudication at the WTO. The US is the main user of AD measures, as well as the main target for complaints at the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body. However, emerging markets have increasingly started using AD law to protect their domestic firms. We find that the typical AD notification is submitted by an upper middle-income country, and it focuses on a medium low-technology industry with differentiated products, but low relationship-specificity. The most typical complainant at the WTO is also an upper middle-income country, challenging a high-income country (most likely the US) that is allegedly giving unfair protection to an industry producing differentiated goods that are not very relationship-specific, using medium-low technologies. The analysis also reveals that when lower middle-income countries are challenged at the WTO, disputes are often resolved before third party adjudication is needed.
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Sweden is home to remarkably many large, prosperous multinationals. We argue that this is partly the result of industrial policies that have been biased in favor of large firms, and an institutional setting where regulations and controls... more
Sweden is home to remarkably many large, prosperous multinationals. We argue that this is partly the result of industrial policies that have been biased in favor of large firms, and an institutional setting where regulations and controls have facilitated investment abroad by Swedish firms, while impeding foreign direct investment in sweden. A particularly important feature of the institutional environment is that Swedish labor unions have supported Swedish investment abroad, but opposed foreign investment in Sweden. The paper ...
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ZusammenfassungFirmeninterner Handel und schwedische multinationale Unternehmen. — In diesem Aufsatz werden verschiedene Hypothesen zu den Bestimmungsgründen des firmeninternen Handels getestet, wobei einmalige Firmendaten schwedischer... more
ZusammenfassungFirmeninterner Handel und schwedische multinationale Unternehmen. — In diesem Aufsatz werden verschiedene Hypothesen zu den Bestimmungsgründen des firmeninternen Handels getestet, wobei einmalige Firmendaten schwedischer multinationaler Unternehmen benutzt werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, da\ die Neigung auslÄndischer Filialen, von den Mutterfirmen zu importieren, positiv mit der ForschungsintensitÄt des gesamten multinationalen Unternehmens korreliert ist. EinfuhrbeschrÄnkungen des Gastlandes haben eine erhebliche negative Wirkung auf die Importe der Filiale von der Mutterfirma. Diese scheinen auch mit dem ProKopf-Einkommen im Gastland zuzunehmen. Die internationalen Reserven des Gastlandes schlie\lich, die herangezogen werden, um mögliche Anreize für eine Manipulation der Transferpreise zu erfassen, führen zu keinen eindeutigen Ergebnissen.RésuméCommerce intra-entreprise et les entreprises multinationales suédoises. — Les auteurs testent plusieurs hypothèses concernant les déterminants du commerce intra-entreprise en utilisant des données uniques du niveau d’entreprise pour des firmes multinationales suédoises. Les résultats suggèrent qu’il y a une relation positive entre les tendances des sociétés affiliées étrangères à importer les biens des sociétés mère et l’intensité de recherche de l’entière entreprise multinationale. Les politiques des gouvernements d’hÔte qui visent à restreindre les importations ont un effet significatif et négatif sur les importations des sociétés affiliées. Ces importations semblent accroÎtre avec le revenu par capita du pays d’hÔte. Finalement, les réserves internationales du pays d’hÔte qui sont introduites comme variable approximative des incitations possibles à une manipulation des prix de transfert ne produisent pas de résultats conclusifs.ResumenComercio intracompañía y las multinationales suecas. — Varias hipótesis sobre las determinantes del comercio intracompañía son sometidas a un test empírico utilizando datos a nivel de empresa para multinationales suecas. Los resultados sugieren que la propensidad de las filiales de importar de sus casas matrices está positivamente correlacionada con la intensidad de investigatión de la empresa multinational. Las políticas de importaciones restrictivas por parte de los gobiernos de los países donde operan las filiales tienen un impacto negativo significativo sobre las importaciones de la filial provenientes de la casa matriz. Las importaciones parecen aumentar con el ingreso per capita del país donde operan las filiales. Finalmente, las reservas internationales del país donde operan la filial, variable introducida para captar posibles incentivos para manipulaciones en los precios del comercio intracompania, arrojan resultados no concluyentes.
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This paper re-examines the relation between regional integration and trade by using the framework suggested by Yeats [1998] to analyze the effects of European integration. We identify the industries that experienced the largest increases... more
This paper re-examines the relation between regional integration and trade by using the framework suggested by Yeats [1998] to analyze the effects of European integration. We identify the industries that experienced the largest increases in regional trade orientation during three phases of European integration, and examine the simultaneous changes in revealed comparative advantages. Our main conclusion is that there are signs of trade diversion for the earliest phase of European integration (1962-1973), when intra-regional trade increased in industries with weak comparative advantages, but not for later time periods. The main reason is that regional integration has coincided with reductions in external trade barriers, improving market access also for outsiders. At the same time, integration has promoted economic growth and import demand, which has been beneficial for outside producers. We also argue that the static concept of trade diversion is not well suited for analyzing modern integration, which aims to raise the comparative advantage of regional producers by promoting scale economies and competition. If successful, it will reduce the market shares of outsiders, but it does not constitute trade diversion: more efficient outsiders are not replaced by less efficient insiders.
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The tariff preferences in FTAs do not apply automatically to all imports. Instead, importers can request to use the tariff preferences, but must then show that the imported goods fulfil the formal requirements (e.g. rules of origin) of... more
The tariff preferences in FTAs do not apply automatically to all imports. Instead, importers can request to use the tariff preferences, but must then show that the imported goods fulfil the formal requirements (e.g. rules of origin) of the FTA. This is costly, which is a likely reason why tariff preferences are not always used. This research note examines preference utilization under the FTA between the EU and South Korea, which was formally ratified in 2015 (but had been provisionally applied from 2011). We use firm and transaction level data for Swedish imports from South Korea during November 2016 to answer the question ‘Who uses the EU's FTAs?’ With information on firm size, product category, import mode (direct imports or customs warehousing), preference margin, potential duty savings, and transaction size, we provide a detailed picture of when firms choose to utilize the tariff preferences. The results suggest that the differences across importers are not primarily related to firm size, as is sometimes suggested in extant literature. We also find that it is the size of the import transaction rather than the size of the preference margin that determines preference utilization.
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In the backwash of the debt financing of the 1970s and the world-wide recession of the early 1980s, many developing countries, particularly in Latin America, ran into serious debt-servicing difficulties. To cope with this debt crisis,... more
In the backwash of the debt financing of the 1970s and the world-wide recession of the early 1980s, many developing countries, particularly in Latin America, ran into serious debt-servicing difficulties. To cope with this debt crisis, radical policy changes were introduced. These ‘structural adjustment programmes’ generally included deregulation and privatization of the economies, and opening them to external markets and competition.1 The shift from inward to outward orientation has involved shifting production from domestic to export markets. In this study, we examine the extent to which a number of heavily-indebted Latin American countries have redirected their sales of manufactured goods to world markets and the role of multinational corporations in this shift. We are particularly interested in investigating whether affiliates of multinational firms are better equipped to redirect their sales than local firms in developing countries.2
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Abstract Using detailed (unpublished) industry data from Mexican manufacturing, this paper estimates a simple simultaneous model to examine if there are signs of productivity spillovers from competition between local firms and foreign... more
Abstract Using detailed (unpublished) industry data from Mexican manufacturing, this paper estimates a simple simultaneous model to examine if there are signs of productivity spillovers from competition between local firms and foreign affiliates. The results are affirmative, but only when suspected 'enclave'industries are dropped from the sample. The spillovers from competition are not determined by foreign presence alone, but rather by the simultaneous interactions between foreign and local firms. This may explain some of the ...
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agreements affect the flows of foreign direct investment depends on location, the competitiveness of local firms, the motives for investment, and how the agreement affects the policy environment
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Research Interests: Business, International Economics, International Trade, Foreign Direct Investment, Regional Integration, and 12 moreEnvironmental Change, Panel Data, Latin America, Social Science Research Network, Gravity Model, Conceptual Framework, Transnational Corporations, Accession, Liberalization, Financial Integration, FDI, and Latin Americans
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The fact that multinational companies do not undertake all their research and development activities at home has become a matter of recent concern, both in the home and host countries of these companies. Some empirical work has been done... more
The fact that multinational companies do not undertake all their research and development activities at home has become a matter of recent concern, both in the home and host countries of these companies. Some empirical work has been done on the question of why MNCs decentralize their RD Lall, 1979a; Hakansson, 1980; and Hirschey and Caves, 1981).1 The study by Hakansson (1980) is one of the few that deal with the determinants of the R&D intensity of MNC affiliates, but it is confined to subsidiaries that carry out R&D, while foreign affiliates that do not are excluded.2 Furthermore, the analysis does not take into account the characteristics of the MNC to which the affiliates belong.
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The present paper describes the characteristics of inward FDI in Uruguay during two different trade regimes the import-substituting period that lasted until 1973 is compared to the subsequent, more outward-oriented policy environment and... more
The present paper describes the characteristics of inward FDI in Uruguay during two different trade regimes the import-substituting period that lasted until 1973 is compared to the subsequent, more outward-oriented policy environment and examines differences in the productivity spillovers from the foreign MNCs that entered during the two regimes. The results indicate that the foreign MNC affiliates established during the import-substituting regime have positive productivity spillovers effects on local firms, but there are no signs of productivity spillovers from the affiliates established during the outward-oriented periodo One possible explanation for these findings is that importsubstituting foreign affiliates bring in production technologies that are not well developed in the host country, which creates a large potential for learning and transfers of production technology to local firms. Export-oriented foreign affiliates, by contrast, may base their operations on production technologies that are not very different from those used by local firms, and instead build their competitiveness on skills in international marketing and distribution.
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Multinational firms may initiate affiliate activities abroad in two different ways; either by building a new establishment (greenfield investment) or by taking over an already existing firm (acquisition).The two methods can be expected to... more
Multinational firms may initiate affiliate activities abroad in two different ways; either by building a new establishment (greenfield investment) or by taking over an already existing firm (acquisition).The two methods can be expected to yield different costs and benefits for the host economy. Some argue, for example, that acquisitions have few positive effects on productive capacity, employment or market concentration, and that foreign purchases of local firms should therefore be prevented. Others are less pessimistic and point to possible long- run effects on the host economy, such as improvements in technology and management practices.
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PurposeThe present study evaluates the impact of special economic zones (SEZs) on poverty, both rural and urban with special reference to Andhra Pradesh in India, using household consumption expenditure data. In addition to estimating the... more
PurposeThe present study evaluates the impact of special economic zones (SEZs) on poverty, both rural and urban with special reference to Andhra Pradesh in India, using household consumption expenditure data. In addition to estimating the effects of the SEZs on poverty, the authors explore some of the possible mechanisms generating these effects.Design/methodology/approachThe authors apply a difference-in-differences (DID) technique on a pooled, cross-sectional, district-level dataset based on official annual household surveys for the period from 2001 to 2012 to estimate the average effects of SEZs on household expenditure per capita, a commonly used measure of household poverty.FindingsThe establishment of the SEZs constituted a major exogenous shock to rural economies by creating demand for large chunks of land, which had an immediate impact on the economic and social settings of these economies and aggravated rural poverty. However, over time the poverty aggravating effects of SE...
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The development of a new energy vehicle industry is considered a sustainable approach to solving the global energy crisis and the problem of environmental pollution. The sales of new energy vehicles in China are the highest in the world,... more
The development of a new energy vehicle industry is considered a sustainable approach to solving the global energy crisis and the problem of environmental pollution. The sales of new energy vehicles in China are the highest in the world, and China’s new energy vehicle enterprises have played an important role in this. The business model, as a method for enterprises to achieve their strategic goals, utilizes resource advantages to deliver value to consumers, and is affected by enterprises’ ownership, competitive strategy, and resources. Based on the resource-based view (RBV) theory, the article uses a mixed quantitative and qualitative methodology, selects 30 vehicle enterprises from the mainstream market, and takes product value, suppliers, dealers and external relations, research capabilities, shareholders, and profitability as potential explanatory elements to analyze business model differentiation between different ownership categories. The article explores the reasons for the di...
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Technical progress is at the heart of economic growth and development. New or improved technology can be achieved through own research and innovations or through the absorption and adaptation of foreign technologies. To facilitate such... more
Technical progress is at the heart of economic growth and development. New or improved technology can be achieved through own research and innovations or through the absorption and adaptation of foreign technologies. To facilitate such technical progress requires a complex system of supporting institutions and good economic policies. This paper analyzes technical progress and innovation policies in three small open
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This paper contributes to the analysis of the impact of FDI on host countries by taking into account the regional dimension of spillover effects. Focusing on the case of Ukraine, we explore the effects of inward FDI on changes in... more
This paper contributes to the analysis of the impact of FDI on host countries by taking into account the regional dimension of spillover effects. Focusing on the case of Ukraine, we explore the effects of inward FDI on changes in productivity, technology, and efficiency in local firms. For the country as a whole, the results suggest that the presence of foreign-owned firms had a negative impact on productivity change in local firms during the period 1999-2003. However, there were notable differences between the effects in the western and eastern parts of the country: the overall findings were mainly driven by the development in western Ukraine, whereas inward FDI in eastern Ukraine did not seem to have any impact on local productivity growth and technical change. These results arguably reflect deep economic and institutional differences between the two parts of Ukraine, which have led to differences in the character of incoming FDI and differences in the ability of local firms to be...
