Naslov
Foreign Direct Iinvestments, Privatization and Technology Transfer in European Transition Countries

Autori
Drezgić, Saša ; Karanikić, Petra ; Crnković, Jana

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, znanstveni

Skup
International Conference :Challenges of Europe, Financial Crisis and Climate Change (8 ; 2009)

Mjesto i datum
Bol, Hrvatska, 21.05.2009. - 23.05.2009

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Nije recenziran

Ključne riječi
FDI; privatization; technology transfer; economic growth; transition economies

Sažetak
According to the theory, private sector is much more productive than the public sector. That was the reason of strong policy orientation towards privatization from the beginning of the transition process. It was considered that this process, after some time, would automatically lead to sustainable economic growth. However, among the transition economies the result of the privatization process exhibits different patterns. A vast literature contribution tries to find answers on such deviation from the theoretical expectations. Countries used numerous privatization methods. Usually they are classified in few broad categories in order to enable analysis. Bennet, Estrin and Urga (2007) distinguish privatization methods by sale privatization, privatization by management– employee buyouts and voucher privatization. Furthermore, they divide countries according to predominant model of privatization in order to estimate effects on economic growth. According to their findings, growth is significantly faster in countries that used the method of voucher privatization. Nevertheless, reasons of ambiguous results of privatization on economic growth are yet to be revealed. Additional topic that has attracted numerous authors is on the issue of foreign direct investments (FDI) and technology transfer. These contributions have been unable to establish a positive and significant impact of FDI on the economic growth of recipient countries. According to the Campos and Kinoshita (2002), a reason for such results could be in the fact that theory equates FDI to technology transferred, while in most countries and regions of the world FDI consists of large number of arrangements and, therefore, cannot be fully related to the technology transfer. Even though one can find numerous research related to the effects of privatization on economic growth on one side, and research related to the effects of FDI on technology transfer and economic growth on the other, the issue of the interrelationship between FDI and privatization in the process of technology transfer has largely been ignored. Therefore, the original approach of this paper is to relate FDI and privatization process and to determine relation of numerous privatization methods used with the FDI inflow. In that sense, the importance for the direction of economic outcomes is not only on the extent of the FDI but on the structure of the FDI as well. Furthermore, privatization methods were directly related to the dispersion of technology depending on whether these methods lead to transfer of state property to “ good” or “ bad” owners. Such methods that preferred profit maximization within the framework of corporation prosperity instead of profit maximization of rent-seekers have lead towards absorption of technology transfers as well. The analysis will be based on the experiences of EU transition economies. Determination of key elements necessary for increased absorption of technology will enable policy recommendations.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Ekonomija

POVEZANOST RADA