We revisit the relationship between foreign investment and productivity of acquired firms. First, we construct a panel firm-level dataset for eight advanced European countries covering domestic and foreign acquisitions together with detailed balance sheet information for the years 1999–2012. Second, we address the challenge of identifying a causal relation. To that end, we compare foreign to domestic acquisitions in addition to accounting for the impact of majority versus minority acquisitions after controlling for country and sector trends. The productivity of foreign acquired affiliates increases modestly after four years, but only when majority stakes are acquired by foreigners. Our results are driven by foreign acquisitions and not by foreign divestment.

我们重新审视了外国投资与被收购公司的生产率之间的关系。首先，我们为八个先进的欧洲国家/地区构建了一个面板公司级数据集，涵盖了国内外收购以及1999-2012年资产负债表的详细信息。其次，我们解决了确定因果关系的挑战。为此，我们在控制了国家和行业趋势之后，还比较了国外和国内的收购，并考虑了多数收购与少数股东收购的影响。四年后，外国并购分支机构的生产率有适度提高，但前提是外国人购买了多数股权。我们的业绩是由外国收购驱动的，而不是由外国撤资驱动的。