Nigel Driffield
Biographic Data
| ID | 5731980 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nigel Driffield |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nigel |
| FAMILY NAME | Driffield |
| SIGNATURE | DRIFFIELD N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Aston University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1056-3117 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 85 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 22 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Certainty without conviction
The Brexit referendum created a major uncertainty shock for UK firms, reshaping their international investment strategies. The EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), implemented in 2021, was intended to restore certainty by codifying trade and investment rules. Using synthetic difference-in-differences and Poisson-based models, this paper examines UK outward greenfield FDI between 2013 and 2023. We find that Brexit drove a significant reall…
Bring the Boys Back Home
Divestments by foreign multinationals are an important phenomenon that is largely neglected in the literature. We use firm‐level panel data from China to estimate the impact of such divestments on the performance of domestic firms in the local economy. To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical study that has looked at these effects. Our results suggest that, overall, domestic firms may be able to benefit from divestments by foreign firm…
Maximising the (unequal) benefits of foreign direct investment
The UK is made up of broadly two types of local economies, characterised by two types of equilibria. One, ‘high-skill equilibria’, consists of richer localities throughout the country (e.g. London, South East, Cambridge, Oxford) which attract high-tech FDI, venture capitalists, high levels of innovation, skills and productivity. Another, ‘low-skill equilibria’ locations, have low levels of innovation, skills and productivity, even despite high le…
The source of heterogeneous externalities
The relationship between inward investments and local firms' productivity is contingent on several contextual conditions that collectively define the ability of firms and regions to recognise, assimilate and commercially apply external knowledge.Yet the empirical literature has been unable to account efficiently for such multidimensional sources of heterogeneous externalities.We introduce a novel two-stage empirical methodology that allows accoun…
Mechanisms of metagovernance as structural challenges to levelling up in England
At the time of writing, the UK government is attempting to tackle place-based inequality through its ‘levelling up’ agenda. To be effective, such interventions require local institutions with the capacity, powers, and budgets to develop and implement long-term strategies. Multi-level metagovernance, the ongoing reorganisation of local governance systems by the central state, has become a salient political process in England, characterised by frag…
Brexit, foreign investment and employment
Inward investment in the UK is likely to be negatively impacted in a number of ways in the event of a ‘hard Brexit’ via tariff barriers, but even ‘softer’ forms of Brexit such as the current potential agreement are likely to cause customs delays, limits to the ability of firms to relocate staff, and to coordinate ‘servitization’ activities. In addition are the the negative impacts of currency depreciation. In the context of already existing job m…
Impact of FDI, ODA and Migrant Remittances on Economic Growth in Developing Countries
When Does Leverage Hurt Performance? - A Firm-Level Analysis
Challenging the Production Function Approach to Assess the Developmental Effects of FDI
Does FDI Cause Development? The Ambiguity of the Evidence and Why it Matters
Excess Leverage and Productivity Growth in Emerging Economies
Industrial districts, inward foreign investment and regional development
This article compares the importance of agglomerations of local firms, and inward FDI as drivers of regional development. The empirical analysis exploits a unique panel dataset of the Italian manufacturing sector at the regional and industry levels. We explore whether FDI and firm agglomeration can be drivers of total factor productivity (separately and jointly), with this effect being robust to different estimators, and different assumptions abo…
On the search for spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) with spatial dependency
DRIFFIELD N. (2006) On the search for spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) with spatial dependency, Regional Studies 40, 107–119. This paper examines various specifications that are used within the literature to test for spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI). Analysis provides significant evidence of externalities from inward FDI, but it shows that these externalities are more localized than has previously been believed. Furt…
Intra-Industry Foreign Direct Investment, Uneven Development and Globalisation
This paper revisits the issue of intra-industry foreign direct investment (FDI). This issue was considered in Stephen Hymer's early work, but was not subsequently developed, and was largely ignored in the literature for some time. Using the example of the UK, this paper traces the patterns of intra-industry FDI, both across countries and industries, for both the manufacturing and service sectors. Despite the undoubted increase in the integration …
Who Gains From Whom? Spillovers, Competition and Technology Sourcing in the Foreign‐owned Sector of Uk Manufacturing
There is a growing literature explaining foreign direct investment flows in terms of ‘technology sourcing’, whereby multinational firms invest in certain locations not to exploit their firm‐specific assets in the host environment, but to access technology that is generated by host country firms. However, it is far from clear whether the literature has found significant evidence of such activity beyond a few isolated examples. This paper extends t…
Are Foreign Firms More Technologically Intensive? Uk Establishment Evidence From the Ard
This paper employs establishment level data from the annual respondents database to consider technological differences between establishments operating in the UK. We adopt very precise measures of technology, arguably much more detailed than have hitherto been employed to address the key question of whether use of technology differs by nationality. After numerous controls we find that typically North American establishments have a higher probabil…
Inward investment, transaction linkages and productivity spillovers
Inward investment, transaction linkages and productivity spillovers
Multinational Firms and the Theory of International Trade
This volume is to a large extent a summary of Markusen’s contribution to the study of the multinational firm over the past 20 years, tracing the introduction of game theory and modern trade theory to the analysis of FDI and the multinational enterprise. Work of this type by Markusen, Venables and others has not only added significantly to our understanding of the multinational enterprise, but has also informed much of the applied work and policy …
Foreign and Domestic Investment
DRIFFIELD N. and HUGHES D. (2003) Foreign and domestic investment: regional development or crowding out?, Reg. Studies 37 , 277-288. This paper tests, at the regional and industry level, the extent to which domestic investment is stimulated or crowded out by inward foreign direct investment. The paper develops a model of domestic investment, based on standard models drawn from macroeconomics and industrial economics. The paper then goes on to sho…
Multinational Enterprises and Technological Effort by Local Firms
It is often assumed that foreign MNEs are the driving force behind technological development in developing economies but it has become evident in recent years that the actions of MNEs in isolation from the domestic economy will not significantly improve the stock of technology in an economy. This study, therefore, examines the determinants of local firms' decisions to undertake technological effort, not only in isolation, but also in the context …
Foreign Manufacturing, Regional Agglomeration and Technical Efficiency in UK Industries
The paper examines howfar foreign manufacturing investment in UK industries, together with the spatial agglomeration of those industries, affect technical efficiency. The paper links research on the estimation of technical efficiency,with those literatures demonstrating the economies associated with foreign direct investment and spatial agglomeration. The methodology involves estimation of a stochastic production frontier with random components a…
Does FDI Cause Development? The Ambiguity of the Evidence and Why it Matters
Mechanisms of metagovernance as structural challenges to levelling up in England
At the time of writing, the UK government is attempting to tackle place-based inequality through its ‘levelling up’ agenda. To be effective, such interventions require local institutions with the capacity, powers, and budgets to develop and implement long-term strategies. Multi-level metagovernance, the ongoing reorganisation of local governance systems by the central state, has become a salient political process in England, characterised by frag…
On the search for spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) with spatial dependency
DRIFFIELD N. (2006) On the search for spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) with spatial dependency, Regional Studies 40, 107–119. This paper examines various specifications that are used within the literature to test for spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI). Analysis provides significant evidence of externalities from inward FDI, but it shows that these externalities are more localized than has previously been believed. Furt…
Multinational Firms and the Theory of International Trade
This volume is to a large extent a summary of Markusen’s contribution to the study of the multinational firm over the past 20 years, tracing the introduction of game theory and modern trade theory to the analysis of FDI and the multinational enterprise. Work of this type by Markusen, Venables and others has not only added significantly to our understanding of the multinational enterprise, but has also informed much of the applied work and policy …
Industrial districts, inward foreign investment and regional development
This article compares the importance of agglomerations of local firms, and inward FDI as drivers of regional development. The empirical analysis exploits a unique panel dataset of the Italian manufacturing sector at the regional and industry levels. We explore whether FDI and firm agglomeration can be drivers of total factor productivity (separately and jointly), with this effect being robust to different estimators, and different assumptions abo…
Foreign Manufacturing, Regional Agglomeration and Technical Efficiency in UK Industries
The paper examines howfar foreign manufacturing investment in UK industries, together with the spatial agglomeration of those industries, affect technical efficiency. The paper links research on the estimation of technical efficiency,with those literatures demonstrating the economies associated with foreign direct investment and spatial agglomeration. The methodology involves estimation of a stochastic production frontier with random components a…
Impact of FDI, ODA and Migrant Remittances on Economic Growth in Developing Countries
Inward investment, transaction linkages and productivity spillovers
Who Gains From Whom? Spillovers, Competition and Technology Sourcing in the Foreign‐owned Sector of Uk Manufacturing
There is a growing literature explaining foreign direct investment flows in terms of ‘technology sourcing’, whereby multinational firms invest in certain locations not to exploit their firm‐specific assets in the host environment, but to access technology that is generated by host country firms. However, it is far from clear whether the literature has found significant evidence of such activity beyond a few isolated examples. This paper extends t…
Foreign and Domestic Investment
DRIFFIELD N. and HUGHES D. (2003) Foreign and domestic investment: regional development or crowding out?, Reg. Studies 37 , 277-288. This paper tests, at the regional and industry level, the extent to which domestic investment is stimulated or crowded out by inward foreign direct investment. The paper develops a model of domestic investment, based on standard models drawn from macroeconomics and industrial economics. The paper then goes on to sho…
The source of heterogeneous externalities
The relationship between inward investments and local firms' productivity is contingent on several contextual conditions that collectively define the ability of firms and regions to recognise, assimilate and commercially apply external knowledge.Yet the empirical literature has been unable to account efficiently for such multidimensional sources of heterogeneous externalities.We introduce a novel two-stage empirical methodology that allows accoun…
Brexit, foreign investment and employment
Inward investment in the UK is likely to be negatively impacted in a number of ways in the event of a ‘hard Brexit’ via tariff barriers, but even ‘softer’ forms of Brexit such as the current potential agreement are likely to cause customs delays, limits to the ability of firms to relocate staff, and to coordinate ‘servitization’ activities. In addition are the the negative impacts of currency depreciation. In the context of already existing job m…
Intra-Industry Foreign Direct Investment, Uneven Development and Globalisation
This paper revisits the issue of intra-industry foreign direct investment (FDI). This issue was considered in Stephen Hymer's early work, but was not subsequently developed, and was largely ignored in the literature for some time. Using the example of the UK, this paper traces the patterns of intra-industry FDI, both across countries and industries, for both the manufacturing and service sectors. Despite the undoubted increase in the integration …
Maximising the (unequal) benefits of foreign direct investment
The UK is made up of broadly two types of local economies, characterised by two types of equilibria. One, ‘high-skill equilibria’, consists of richer localities throughout the country (e.g. London, South East, Cambridge, Oxford) which attract high-tech FDI, venture capitalists, high levels of innovation, skills and productivity. Another, ‘low-skill equilibria’ locations, have low levels of innovation, skills and productivity, even despite high le…
Challenging the Production Function Approach to Assess the Developmental Effects of FDI
Inward investment, transaction linkages and productivity spillovers
Foreign Manufacturing, Regional Agglomeration and Technical Efficiency in UK Industries
The paper examines howfar foreign manufacturing investment in UK industries, together with the spatial agglomeration of those industries, affect technical efficiency. The paper links research on the estimation of technical efficiency,with those literatures demonstrating the economies associated with foreign direct investment and spatial agglomeration. The methodology involves estimation of a stochastic production frontier with random components a…
Multinational Enterprises and Technological Effort by Local Firms
It is often assumed that foreign MNEs are the driving force behind technological development in developing economies but it has become evident in recent years that the actions of MNEs in isolation from the domestic economy will not significantly improve the stock of technology in an economy. This study, therefore, examines the determinants of local firms' decisions to undertake technological effort, not only in isolation, but also in the context …
Foreign and Domestic Investment
DRIFFIELD N. and HUGHES D. (2003) Foreign and domestic investment: regional development or crowding out?, Reg. Studies 37 , 277-288. This paper tests, at the regional and industry level, the extent to which domestic investment is stimulated or crowded out by inward foreign direct investment. The paper develops a model of domestic investment, based on standard models drawn from macroeconomics and industrial economics. The paper then goes on to sho…
Inward investment, transaction linkages and productivity spillovers
Inward investment, transaction linkages and productivity spillovers
Multinational Firms and the Theory of International Trade
This volume is to a large extent a summary of Markusen’s contribution to the study of the multinational firm over the past 20 years, tracing the introduction of game theory and modern trade theory to the analysis of FDI and the multinational enterprise. Work of this type by Markusen, Venables and others has not only added significantly to our understanding of the multinational enterprise, but has also informed much of the applied work and policy …
Intra-Industry Foreign Direct Investment, Uneven Development and Globalisation
This paper revisits the issue of intra-industry foreign direct investment (FDI). This issue was considered in Stephen Hymer's early work, but was not subsequently developed, and was largely ignored in the literature for some time. Using the example of the UK, this paper traces the patterns of intra-industry FDI, both across countries and industries, for both the manufacturing and service sectors. Despite the undoubted increase in the integration …
Who Gains From Whom? Spillovers, Competition and Technology Sourcing in the Foreign‐owned Sector of Uk Manufacturing
There is a growing literature explaining foreign direct investment flows in terms of ‘technology sourcing’, whereby multinational firms invest in certain locations not to exploit their firm‐specific assets in the host environment, but to access technology that is generated by host country firms. However, it is far from clear whether the literature has found significant evidence of such activity beyond a few isolated examples. This paper extends t…
Are Foreign Firms More Technologically Intensive? Uk Establishment Evidence From the Ard
This paper employs establishment level data from the annual respondents database to consider technological differences between establishments operating in the UK. We adopt very precise measures of technology, arguably much more detailed than have hitherto been employed to address the key question of whether use of technology differs by nationality. After numerous controls we find that typically North American establishments have a higher probabil…
On the search for spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) with spatial dependency
DRIFFIELD N. (2006) On the search for spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) with spatial dependency, Regional Studies 40, 107–119. This paper examines various specifications that are used within the literature to test for spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI). Analysis provides significant evidence of externalities from inward FDI, but it shows that these externalities are more localized than has previously been believed. Furt…
Excess Leverage and Productivity Growth in Emerging Economies
Industrial districts, inward foreign investment and regional development
This article compares the importance of agglomerations of local firms, and inward FDI as drivers of regional development. The empirical analysis exploits a unique panel dataset of the Italian manufacturing sector at the regional and industry levels. We explore whether FDI and firm agglomeration can be drivers of total factor productivity (separately and jointly), with this effect being robust to different estimators, and different assumptions abo…
Does FDI Cause Development? The Ambiguity of the Evidence and Why it Matters
When Does Leverage Hurt Performance? - A Firm-Level Analysis
Challenging the Production Function Approach to Assess the Developmental Effects of FDI
Impact of FDI, ODA and Migrant Remittances on Economic Growth in Developing Countries
Brexit, foreign investment and employment
Inward investment in the UK is likely to be negatively impacted in a number of ways in the event of a ‘hard Brexit’ via tariff barriers, but even ‘softer’ forms of Brexit such as the current potential agreement are likely to cause customs delays, limits to the ability of firms to relocate staff, and to coordinate ‘servitization’ activities. In addition are the the negative impacts of currency depreciation. In the context of already existing job m…
Mechanisms of metagovernance as structural challenges to levelling up in England
At the time of writing, the UK government is attempting to tackle place-based inequality through its ‘levelling up’ agenda. To be effective, such interventions require local institutions with the capacity, powers, and budgets to develop and implement long-term strategies. Multi-level metagovernance, the ongoing reorganisation of local governance systems by the central state, has become a salient political process in England, characterised by frag…
Maximising the (unequal) benefits of foreign direct investment
The UK is made up of broadly two types of local economies, characterised by two types of equilibria. One, ‘high-skill equilibria’, consists of richer localities throughout the country (e.g. London, South East, Cambridge, Oxford) which attract high-tech FDI, venture capitalists, high levels of innovation, skills and productivity. Another, ‘low-skill equilibria’ locations, have low levels of innovation, skills and productivity, even despite high le…
The source of heterogeneous externalities
The relationship between inward investments and local firms' productivity is contingent on several contextual conditions that collectively define the ability of firms and regions to recognise, assimilate and commercially apply external knowledge.Yet the empirical literature has been unable to account efficiently for such multidimensional sources of heterogeneous externalities.We introduce a novel two-stage empirical methodology that allows accoun…
Bring the Boys Back Home
Divestments by foreign multinationals are an important phenomenon that is largely neglected in the literature. We use firm‐level panel data from China to estimate the impact of such divestments on the performance of domestic firms in the local economy. To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical study that has looked at these effects. Our results suggest that, overall, domestic firms may be able to benefit from divestments by foreign firm…
Certainty without conviction
The Brexit referendum created a major uncertainty shock for UK firms, reshaping their international investment strategies. The EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), implemented in 2021, was intended to restore certainty by codifying trade and investment rules. Using synthetic difference-in-differences and Poisson-based models, this paper examines UK outward greenfield FDI between 2013 and 2023. We find that Brexit drove a significant reall…
Economics (21 works) · Global trade and economics (16 works) · Business (14 works) · Macroeconomics (14 works) · International Business and FDI (13 works) · Foreign direct investment (11 works) · International trade (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Economic growth (7 works) · Industrial organization (7 works)