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A recent debate on globalization addresses the importance of skills for firms' performance in developing countries. Employing microdata from Indonesian manufacturing, we examine the externality effects of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on labor demand by skill in local firms and identify the relative contribution of each effect to their skill structure. The results show that local firms replace unskilled workers with skilled ones to enable transactions with foreign firms in downstream industries. However, severe labor market competition for skilled workers with foreign firms hinders them from upgrading the skill structure. Moreover, severe product market competition decreases demand for unskilled workers in local firms. Thus, an adequate supply of skilled workers is crucial for the better performance of local firms. The results also highlight the necessity of policies to mitigate the negative impact of inward FDI on unskilled employment in the host economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits how vertical linkages between overseas affiliates and their parents are related to intrafirm trade by shedding light on variations in contractibility across sectors in the case of Japanese multinational enterprises based on affiliate-level data. We confirm that intrafirm trade is observed only in a limited fraction of affiliates. To include a large number of affiliates with zero intrafirm trade into our regressions, we estimate our model by Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood. We find that Japanese multinational affiliates tend to export relatively more to their parents in vertically linked sectors especially if they trade goods with low contractibility. This relationship is evident for affiliates located in developing countries. This result indicates that input–output linkage is a significant determinant of intrafirm trade when the trade is affected by contractual frictions. We also confirm the robustness of the results regardless of the definition of contractibility indices by previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the effect of foreign direct investments (FDI) on home productivity using plant-level data rather than firm-level data. Our results are consistent with the theoretical predictions. Horizontal FDI (HFDI) does not have a significantly positive effect on home productivity in plants that have the same activities abroad. In contrast, vertical FDI (VFDI) significantly enhances productivity in plants with an input-output relationship with activities relocated abroad. Furthermore, focusing on FDI in East Asia, the productivity improvements at home through VFDI are even greater, which might be caused by significant differences in factor prices between Japan and host countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the literature there is substantial evidence that a plant is more likely to be closed down if it is owned by a firm with other plants or is owned by a multinational enterprise (MNE). But does ownership or multi-plant status matter for which plants are closed? Using Japanese data we study plant closure by multi-plant MNEs and non-MNEs. We show that both organisational forms raise the probability of plant exit and that plants that are relatively small and capital unintensive relative to the rest of the firm are significantly more likely to exit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional classification of hypertensive retinopathy was based on the Keith-Wagener-Barker (KWB) grading, which is a subjective scaling system, and it is difficult to distinguish between the first and second grades. Retinal and choroidal vasculatures are affected by systemic hypertension, although retinal vasculature changes with age, axial length, intraocular pressure, and retinal diseases. It is necessary to establish a new objective method to assess hypertensive vascular changes. In the present study, we have examined the vasculature of the macular choriocapillaris in order to establish a new objective method to assess hypertensive vascular changes using optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA). Choriocapillaris vessel density (VD), vessel length, and vessel diameter index in a 3 × 3 mm macular area were measured by OTCA in a total of 567 volunteers (361 healthy subjects and 206 subjects with systemic hypertension) who attended a basic health check-up. Ocular factors, systemic factors, and medications were evaluated. We detected significant differences in normative choriocapillaris vasculature between the left and right eyes in 53 healthy subjects and revealed correlations between age, intraocular pressure, axial length, and choriocapillaris vasculature in 308 healthy subjects. Normative foveal VD was correlated with age only and the efficiency was weak. The analysis of 206 right eyes (KWB grade 0, 159 eyes; grade 1, 35 eyes; and grade 2, 12 eyes) revealed that foveal VD was strongly correlated with KWB grade only (P < 0.001). This is the first report suggesting that OCTA for foveal choriocapillaris measurement by OCTA would might provide the advantage of evaluating be objective method for evaluating the progression of systemic hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]