Enterprise demography and foreign ownership: effects on employment

Current research has shown that foreign controlled enterprises are generally larger, employ more high-skilled employees and pay higher wages. However, a proper assessment of the employment consequences of firms requires consideration of longitudinal developments and demographic events such as births, deaths and acquisitions. In this paper we present differences in birth, mortality and acquisition rates between foreign and domestic firms, and examine how various employment indicators develop before and after such events. This highlights considerable differences between foreign and Dutch controlled enterprises with respect to their annual birth and
acquisition rates, with most births being realised under Dutch control (twice as many), and more acquisitions being undertaken by foreign parties.