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This paper examines how export and export destination stimulates innovation by Russian manufacturing firms. The discussion is guided by the theoretical models for heterogeneous firms engaged in international trade which predict that, because more productive firms generate higher profit gains, they are able to afford high entry costs, and trade liberalization encourages the use of more progressive technologies and brings higher returns from R&D investments. We will test the theory using a panel of Russian manufacturing firms surveyed in 2004 and 2009, and use export entry and export destinations to identify the causal effects on various direct measures of technologies, skill and management innovations. We find evidence on exporters' higher R&D financing, better management and technological upgrades. Exporters, most noticeably long-time and continuous exporters, are more active in monitoring their competitors, both domestically and internationally, and more frequently employ highly qualified managers. Exporters are more active in IT implementation. When it comes to export destination, we find that non-CIS exporters are more prone to learning. However, we cannot identify that government or foreign ownership shows any impact on learning-by-exporting effects.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may AbstractThis paper conducts an empirical study of the factors that affect the spatial distribution of foreign direct investment (FDI) across regions in Russia; in particular, this paper is concerned with those regions that are endowed with natural resources and marketrelated benefits. Our analysis employs data on Russian firms with a foreign investor during the 2000-2009 period and linked regional statistics in the conditional logit model. The main findings are threefold. First, we conclude that one theory alone is not able to explain the geographical pattern of foreign investments in Russia. A combination of determinants is at work; market-related factors and the availability of natural resources are important factors in attracting FDI. The relative importance of natural resources seems to grow over time, despite shocks associated with events such as the Yukos trial. Second, existing agglomeration economies encourage foreign investors by means of forces generated simultaneously by sector-specific and inter-sectoral externalities. Third, the findings imply that service-oriented FDI co-locates with extraction industries in resource-endowed regions. The results are robust when Moscow is excluded and for subsamples including only Greenfield investments or both Greenfield investments and mergers and acquisitions (M&A).Keywords: multinational enterprises, regional economic activity, exhaustible re-sources and economic development JEL Classification: F23, R11, Q34  This Working Paper is an output of the joint research project implemented by the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow) and Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH). We thank the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Basic research program at HSE for financial support. We also thank Victoria Golikova, Boris Kuznetsov, Andrey Yakovlev, Jutta Günther, Andrea Gauselman, Björn Jindra, Walter Hyll, Gunnar Pippl and the participants of the EACES conference in Glasgow for helpful comments and suggestions. We are grateful to Olga Uvarova for helping us with the Ruslana data set and regional statistics.

We investigate the impact of court conditions on multinational decisions on entry, subsidiary size and entry mode across subnational regions in Russia. We apply the literature on heterogeneous firms and the institution-based view of investor behavior, which predict that higher institutional costs raise the size and productivity cut-off of start-up subsidiaries. Our empirical results based on microestablishment data of foreign-owned firms in Russia show that a weaker judicial framework and stronger political power of the local governor significantly de-stimulate entry. The majority of multinationals enter Russia, which is viewed as a high-risk country, through large and very large subsidiaries wholly owned by the foreign parents. Variation of the business strategies of multinationals between regions is largely explained by regional court conditions, as foreign investors adapt their strategic decisions to compensate court deficiencies by increasing the size of the subsidiary and acquiring local institutional knowledge through partnership with resident firms. We also find that structural adjustments to court risks are typical for horizontal investments, which only serve the host market.