Climbing the Rungs of the Quality Ladder: FDI and Domestic Exporters in Romania Matej Bajgar∗ and Beata Javorcikyz July 26, 2017 Abstract This paper argues that inflows of foreign direct investment can facilitate export upgrading in host countries. Using customs data merged with firm-level information for 2005-2011, it shows a positive relationship between the quality of products exported by Romanian firms and the presence of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the downstream (input-sourcing) and upstream (input-supplying) sectors. These conclusions hold when the product quality is proxied with unit values and when it is estimated following the approach of Khandelwal et al.(2013). At the same time, MNE presence does not appear to have any positive impact on the export product portfolio, the number of destinations or their average income level. ∗OECD, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, 2 rue Andre Pascal, 75016 Paris, France; and CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of Charles University in Prague and the Economics Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Politickych veznu 7, 111 21 Prague, Czech Republic (email:
[email protected]). yDepartment of Economics, University of Oxford and CEPR, Manor Road Building, Manor Road, Oxford OX1 3UQ, United Kingdom (email:
[email protected]). zThe authors would like to thank Juan Carluccio, Maria Garcia De La Vega, Rocco Macchiavello, Kalina Manova, Ferdinand Rauch, Adrian Wood and seminar participants at Oxford, Stanford, CESifo-Delphi Conference, DEV PhD Conference, GEP Post-graduate Conference and International Workshop on Firms and Globalisation in Aix- en-Provence for very useful comments and suggestions.