TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hanson,Gordon H.
AU  - Mataloni,Raymond J., Jr.
AU  - Slaughter,Matthew J.
TI  - Expansion Strategies of U.S. Multinational Firms
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8433
PY  - 2001
Y2  - August 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8433
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8433.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Gordon H. Hanson
IR/PS 0519
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA  92093-0519
Tel: 858/822-5087
Fax: 858/534-3939
E-Mail: gohanson@ucsd.edu

Matthew J. Slaughter
Tuck School of Business
Dartmouth College
100 Tuck Hall
Hanover, NH 03755
Tel: 603/646-2939
Fax: 603/646-0995
E-Mail: matthew.j.slaughter@dartmouth.edu
AB  - Recent theoretical work tends to characterize multinational enterprises as arising through either horizontal or vertical foreign direct investment (FDI). Empirical research tends to find stronger support for the former than for the latter. In this paper, we use recent, detailed data on U.S. multinational firms to revisit the question of why multinationals go abroad. We examine three types of foreign activities of U.S. multinationals: global outsourcing, the use of export platforms, and wholesale trading. Our results suggest that vertical FDI is more common than previous research suggests, and more generally that the foreign affiliates of multinationals span a diverse set of activities that each respond to policies and characteristics of host countries in quite different ways.
ER  -