Multinational Firms and Job Tasks

Abstract

We analyze the impact of multinational and foreign ownership on the demand for job tasks and educational skills. By using Swedish matched employer-employee data, we find that both foreign and domestic multinational firms have high shares of nonroutine tasks and tasks requiring personal interaction. Moreover, acquisitions of local firms by multinationals increase the relative demand for non-routine and interactive job tasks in the targeted firms. The differences in the demand for job tasks are only partly explained by firm characteristics. Dividing employees by education instead of job tasks does not result in the same effects on relative labor demand, which shows that task measures do indeed capture a new labor market aspect. JEL: J23, F16, F21, F23

The sources of the urban wage premium by worker skills: Spatial sorting or agglomeration economies?

“…Such non‐routine job tasks typically involve problem‐solving and a lack of deductive rules and codifiable information (Hakkala et al. ; Becker et al. ).…”

The effects of wrongful discharge protection on foreign multinationals: Evidence from transaction‐level data

“…Our findings point to a robust negative association between the implementation of employment protection laws and inward FDI in the US. Specifically, our baseline results suggest that the adoption of the implied contract exception and the good faith exception in a given state are associated with a decline of about 27% (corresponding to 2.8 transactions annually) and 15% (corresponding to 1.5 9 In line with the perception that multinationals are more footloose, Hakkala et al (2009) and Görg et al (2009) find that wage elasticities are higher in multinationals than in domestic firms in Sweden and Ireland, respectively. See also Bernard and Sjöholm (2003) and Görg and Strobl (2003), who find higher exit probabilities for multinationals than comparable domestic plants.…”

“… In line with the perception that multinationals are more footloose, Hakkala et al. () and Görg et al. () find that wage elasticities are higher in multinationals than in domestic firms in Sweden and Ireland, respectively.…”

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“…13 The use of these German data is possible because the German work survey codified by Becker, Ekholm, and Muendler (2013) can be converted into the ISCO-88 classification of the occupations at the 2-digit level that we have in the Finnish register data on individuals. This approach is identical to that employed by Nilsson Hakkala, Heyman, and Sjöholm (2009) in their analysis of the offshoring activities of Swedish firms. Nonroutine tasks involve nonrepetitive work methods and creative problem solving; such tasks cannot be programmed as simple rules.…”