Do multinational enterprises create local job opportunities in developing countries? We address this question in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa by combining information on domestic and foreign multinationals’ affiliates over more than a decade with geolocalised individual-level data on labor supply. Having a multinational’s affiliate within walking distance correlates with an increase in employment of about +4% with respect to the sample mean. Multinationals’ activity is correlated with higher off–farm and lower on–farm employment (+13% and −7%, respectively), a result driven by affiliates of foreign companies. Female employment and "good jobs" increase around affiliates, but only when they are part of foreign groups. A battery of robustness checks and a retrospective analysis exploiting time variation in the individual labor market entry deliver qualitatively similar results, suggesting our findings do not suffer major identification issues.

Mendola, M., Prarolo, G., Sonno, T. (2024). Curse or blessing? multinational corporations and labor market outcomes in Africa. REVIEW OF WORLD ECONOMICS, online first, 1-33 [10.1007/s10290-024-00547-3].

Curse or blessing? multinational corporations and labor market outcomes in Africa

Prarolo, Giovanni
;
Sonno, Tommaso
2024

Abstract

Do multinational enterprises create local job opportunities in developing countries? We address this question in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa by combining information on domestic and foreign multinationals’ affiliates over more than a decade with geolocalised individual-level data on labor supply. Having a multinational’s affiliate within walking distance correlates with an increase in employment of about +4% with respect to the sample mean. Multinationals’ activity is correlated with higher off–farm and lower on–farm employment (+13% and −7%, respectively), a result driven by affiliates of foreign companies. Female employment and "good jobs" increase around affiliates, but only when they are part of foreign groups. A battery of robustness checks and a retrospective analysis exploiting time variation in the individual labor market entry deliver qualitatively similar results, suggesting our findings do not suffer major identification issues.
2024
Mendola, M., Prarolo, G., Sonno, T. (2024). Curse or blessing? multinational corporations and labor market outcomes in Africa. REVIEW OF WORLD ECONOMICS, online first, 1-33 [10.1007/s10290-024-00547-3].
Mendola, Mariapia; Prarolo, Giovanni; Sonno, Tommaso
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
MendolaPraroloSonno_ROWE.pdf

embargo fino al 30/07/2025

Tipo: Postprint
Licenza: Licenza per accesso libero gratuito
Dimensione 2.41 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
2.41 MB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Contatta l'autore

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/1002127
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 0
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 0
social impact