No. 1085 - Foreign ownership and performance: evidence from a panel of Italian firms

Temi di discussione (Working papers)
by Chiara Bentivogli and Litterio Mirenda
October 2016
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The paper studies the impact of foreign ownership on a firm’s economic performance. We use a unique panel dataset to test the foreign ownership premium by comparing our sample of firms based in Italy and owned by a foreign subject with a sample of purely domestic firms that, in order to have a proper counterfactual, were selected using propensity score matching. Our difference-in-differences results show the existence of a premium for the size, profitability and financial soundness of the foreign-owned companies. The premium increases with time, is concentrated in the service sector, and disappears if the foreign investor is based in a fiscal haven.

Published in 2017 in: International Journal of the Economics of Business, v. 24, 3, pp. 251-273.

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  1. 07 November 2016
    No. 1085 - Foreign ownership and performance: evidence from a panel of Italian firms
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