This paper uses the Workplace Employee Relations Survey panel for 1990-1998 to investigate the relationship between foreign ownership, skill-structure and use of microelectronic technologies in British establishments. We find that foreign-owned establishments are early adopters of new microelectronic technologies and employ more non-manual workers (more senior technical professional workers, less skilled manual workers). Because foreign-owned establishments are early adopters of new technology, an increase in foreign ownership can partly explain a recent improvement in the relative position of skilled workers in Britain.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bartel, A.
and Lichtenberg, F. (1987), `The comparative advantage of educated workers in implementing new technology', Review of Economics and Statistics, 69, pp. 1-11.
2.
Bernard, A.B.
and Jensen, J.B. (1997), `Exporters, skill upgrading, and the wage gap', Journal of International Economics, 42, pp. 3-31.
3.
Blanchflower, D.
(1984), `Comparative pay levels in domestically-owned and foreign-owned manufacturing plants: a comment”, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 22, pp. 265-267.
4.
Blomström, M.
and Sjöholm, F. (1999), `Technology transfer and spillovers: does local participation with multinationals matter?', European Economic Review, 43, pp. 915-923.
5.
Caves, R.E.
(1974), `Multinational firms, competition, and productivity in host-country markets', Economica, 41, 162, pp. 176-193.
6.
Cully, M.
and Marginson, P. (1995), The Workplace Industrial Relations Surveys: Donovan and the Burden of Continuity, Warwick Papers in Industrial Relations 55, Coventry, Industrial Relations Research Unit.
7.
Davies, S.W.
and Lyons, B.R. (1991), `Characterising relative performance: the productivity advantage of foreign-owned firms in the UK', Oxford Economic Papers, 43, pp. 584-595.
8.
Department of Trade and Industry
(1999), Workplace Employee Relations Survey, 1998: Panel Survey 1990-1998 [computer file]. 4th ednColchester: The Data Archive [distributor], 20 December 1999, SN: 4026.
9.
Driffield, N.
(1995), `Wage rates and labour productivity in the foreign and domestic sectors of British industry: a plant level comparison', Discussion Paper in Economics, Cardiff Business School, University of Wales.
10.
Dunning, J.H.
(1977), `Trade, location of economic activity and MNE: a search for an eclectic approach', in Ohlin, B., Hesselborn, P.O. and Wijkman, P.W. (eds), The International Allocation of Economic Activity, London, Macmillan.
11.
Dunning, J.H.
(1993), Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
12.
Forth, J.
and Kirby, S. (2000), `Guide to the analysis of the workplace employee relations survey 1998 [version 1.1: april 2000]', Wers98 data dissemination service, National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
13.
Forth, J.
and Millward, N. (2001), `The low-paid worker and the low-paying employer: characterisations using WERS98', National Institute Discussion Paper no. 179.
14.
Girma, S.
, Greenaway, D. and Wakelin, K. (2000), `Who benefits from foreign direct investment in the UK', paper presented at the RES conference in St Andrews, July.
15.
Griffith, R.
(1999), `Productivity and foreign-ownership in the UK car industry', Institute for Fiscal Studies Working paper no. 99/11.
16.
Griliches, Z.
(1969), `Capital-skill complementarity', Review of Economics and Statistics, 51, pp. 465-468.
17.
Haskel, J.
and Heden, Y. (1999), `Computers and the demand for skilled labour: industry and establishment panel evidence for the UK', Economic Journal, 109, pp. 69-79.
18.
Lohr, S.L.
(1999), Sampling: Design and Analysis, Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
19.
Machin, S.
(1996), `Changes in the relative demand for skills', in Booth, A.L. and Snower, D.J. Qcquiring Skills: Market Failures, their Symptoms and Policy Responses, CEPR and Cambridge University Press.
20.
Mansfield, E.
, Rapoport, J., Romeo, A., Villani, E., Wagner, S. and Husic, F. (1977), The Production and Application of New Industrial Technology, New York, Norton.
21.
Mansfield E.
and Romeo, A. (1980), `Technology transfer to overseas subsidiaries by US based firms', Quarterly Journal of Economics, December, pp. 737-750.
22.
Markusen, J.R.
and Venables, A.T. (1997), `The role of multinational firms in the wage-gap debate', Review of International Economics, 5, 4, pp. 435-451.
23.
Millward, N.
, Bryson, A. and Forth, J. (2000), All Change at Work? British Employment Relations 1980-1998, as Portrayed by the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, London, Routledge.
24.
Oulton, N.
(1998), `Investment, capital and foreign ownership in UK manufacturing', National Institute of Economic and Social Research Discussion paper no. 141.
25.
Polachek, S.W.
and Siebert, W.S. (1993), The Economics of Earnings, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
26.
Prescott, E.C.
(1998), `Needed: a theory of total factor productivity', International Economic Review, 39, pp. 525-552.
27.
Purdon, S.
and Pickering, K. (2001), `The use of sampling weights in the analysis of the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey”, National Centre for Social Research, presented at 2nd WERS conference and downloadable from http://www.niesr.ac.uk/niesr/wers98.
28.
Teece, D.J.
(1977), `Technology transfer by multinational firms: the resource cost of transferring technological know-how', Economic Journal, 87, pp. 242-261.
29.
Velde, D.W. te
(2002), `Foreign ownership and wages in British establishments', The Economic and Social Review, 33, pp. 101-108.
