Effects of Investment Climates on Foreign Invested Firms’ Performance: Evidence from Firm Level Data

Abstract

The paper studies the effects of the investment climate (IC) on the performance of Foreign Invested Enterprises (FIEs) using firm-level data in 44 cities in China. We find that IC has significant and positive effects on the performance of FIEs. We also find that FIEs that have operated longer in China, or whose foreign investors have had more investments in China rely less on IC. The change in the performance in the data may reflect an actual change in the profit or a change in the amount of tax-driven under-reporting of the profit. Our empirical results support the former view, while only partially support the latter view.

本文利用企業層面數據 ,研究中國內地 44個城市的投資環境對外資企業效益的影響。我們發現 :一方面 ,投資環境 (尤其是法制環境 )對外資企業的效益有顯著的正向影響 ;另一方面 ,在中國經營時間長、外方投資者投資次數多的外資企業對投資環境的依賴程度比較低。數據中外資企業效益的變化可能是由于外資企業效益真正發生了變化 ,也可能是外資企業出于納稅的考慮而改變了利潤隱瞞的程度。我們的實證結果支持了前一種觀點 ,而只是部分支持了后一種觀點。