英语翻译
3.3.Host country-related explanations
Taxes and tariffs influence MNEs’ trade behavior,e.g.as transfer pricing is used to redistribute profits.Vertical relations should be counteracted by trade barriers and geographical distance.At the same time,Table 4 showed that affiliates in Asia and developed countries outside Europe and North America displayed the highest
propensity to import from their Swedish parent companies.
Market and production conditions in the host country also play an important role for the trading behavior of affiliates.The demand for sophisticated customer services,which tend to require a local presence,is related to income.Consumers’ demand for variety also grows with income,further suggesting that the propensity of affiliates to import complementary finished goods increases in the income level of the host country.Regarding intermediate products,traditional factor proportions models speak for a positive impact of widening factor cost differentials.On the other hand,imperfect competition models have suggested that an increasing discrepancy in factor costs — conversely related to the income level of host countries — counteracts intermediate goods’ trade by vertically integrated MNEs (Helpman and Krugman,1985).There are also arguments for vertical specialization among high-income countries,particularly in knowledge-intensive production whose location may depend more on a free flow of trade,the quality of infrastructure,worker skills and the presence of qualified buyers and suppliers,than on factor cost differentials (c.f.Wheeler and Mody,1992; Braunerhjelm and Svensson,1994; Andersson and Fredriksson,1996).However,the availability of qualified local subcontractors should reduce the dependence on input goods from 7 the home country.Thus,unless traditional factor models are valid,the relationship between income level and affiliates’ propensity to import intermediates is ambiguous a priori.
According to Kravis and Lipsey (1982),large host markets enable firms to meet high entry costs and exploit economies of scale at the plant level,thereby attracting specialized and export-oriented activities.This suggests a positive relationship between intra-firm imports of intermediates and market size.Other empirical studies have shown that large markets are most likely to be served by local production (Swedenborg,1979; Culem,1988;Veugelers,1991).Since a large market should facilitate a greater scale in production at the plant level,complementary imports of finished goods should decline with growing host market size.