Foreign Trade, the Multinational Enterprise, and Regional Economic Change in the United States: Issues for Locational Analysis

摘要

This paper identifies the scope for locational analysis - regional and spatial economics, or in general, economic geography - to contribute to the assessment of the role of international trade and the multinational enterprise activity in changing the regional pattern of economic activity in the United States. Recent trends in actual trade patterns and in the theory of trade and the multinational enterprise are reviewed. The increasing prominence of intraindustry trade has prompted further development in trade theory, while changes in the theory of the multinational enterprise (MNE) have been hard pressed to keep up with changes in MNE activity. Empirical research suggests tentatively that the full employment impacts of the recent American trade deficit have been distributed more evenly across census regions than is commonly believed. There has been little empirical research on the regional impacts of MNEs in the United States, although considerably more has been done in the British Isles;much of this has been little guided by economic theory of the MNE or by location theory. Opportunities for regional/spatial analysis of foreign trade lie in spatial assessment of comparative advantage. The spatial version of industrial organization theory, spatial pricing/spatial competition theory (SP/SC), has been used in limited analysis of issues in MNE activity, and there appear to be opportunities for extension of SP/SC modeling into issues of informational asymmetry that could bear on MNE choices. Additionally, locational modeling of integrated, multi-plant firms could offer insights into certain aspects of MNE operational behavior. Studies of the regional impacts of MNE activity in the United States, or in other countries, needs to take better account of the branch plant as a member of a multi-plant firm in a noncompetitive industry than has been done to date. (ERA citation 13:030401)