Foreign Direct Investment, Backward Linkages, and Productivity Spillovers: What Governments Can Do to Strengthen Linkages and Their Impact

Abstract

This note provides an up-to-date summary of the academic evidence around the drivers and channels for technology transfer and productivity spillovers by multinational corporations (MNC) operating in host economies. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is a major contributor to development. Besides the direct benefits FDI brings in terms of increased capital, employment and exports, the presence and operations of MNCs can also help improve the productivity of local firms through backward linkages and offer an important channel for the integration of local firms into global value chains (GVC). However, several market failures exist that get in the way of these linkages and spillovers fully materializing. This note highlights the main challenges as well as some policy recommendations for host economy Governments to consider.