The Role of Multinational Corporations in Shaping Economies

Abstract or Introduction

It seems most developing countries have realized the immense benefits associated with Multinational Corporations (MNC’s), especially with regard to the productivity of the firms in the host country. In the past decades, there has been an unprecedented debate over whether multinational corporations yield economic benefits to the host countries but, that argument appear to have varnished after a comprehensive evaluation of different elements of multinational corporations. Currently, most countries are attracting multinational corporations to reap the accrued benefits, especially through Foreign Direct Investment, which has proven to boost the host country’s economy through enhancing productivity.

Some of the principal reasons as to why multinational corporations are considered beneficial to the host countries include technology transfer, creation of new job opportunities and the inflow of capital from the MNC’s parent company to its subsidiaries in the host country. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is known to be one of the principal drivers of productivity in the host countries because it enhances technological transfer, which in turn yields enormous benefits to the host country and the parent company. In most cases, host countries access superior technology through technological spillovers and, this enhances the productivity of the local firms. Campos states, “In addition, host country firms may obtain other potential productivity spillovers that the presence of MNC could generate on suppliers and customer.” Concisely, there are different ways in which multinational corporations enhance productivity of the firms. Therefore, this research will give an overview on the impact of multinational corporations on productivity.