EU拡大と多国籍企業: 日系企業の対中東欧投資の分析

Abstract

The eastern enlargement of the European Union (EU) changed the economic conditions within Europe, and the multinational enterprises (MNEs) restructure their business and operation. This paper examines the relationships between the eastern enlargement of the EU and the MNEs through the cases of Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI).From the general trend, Japanese FDI into the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) is relatively limited compared with both total FDI into CEECs, and total Japanese FDI into Europe, although on the increasing tendency. In addition, it shows the geographical and industrial concentration. That is, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland are the main recipients in CEECs, while the manufacturing sector, especially electric and electronics equipments and transport equipments, shares much higher weight than those into Western Europe. The investigation of the location pattern of Japanese plants from the supra-national perspective makes clear Japanese MNEs expand or newly enter into CEECs, rather than relocate their subsidiaries from the West to the East. The examination of the coefficient between the plant location and the sub-national regional economic character shows no significance on the demand factors, but suggests the significance of the supply side factors; i. e. the labour market conditions, the degree of the industrialisation, and the level of the infrastructure. Here, it is worth to note that the negative sign of labour market conditions is confirmed, contrary to the expectation.We can indicate some implications from the above investigation. First, the EU enlargement has a kind of announce effect on the FDI which is absorbed even before the formal membership. Second, Japanese MNEs treat CEECs as the production and export base with low wage costs, and their strategy tends to expand their presence in Europe rather than the simple relocation. Third, some significant coefficients of the sub-national factors suggest the importance of the supply side factors. Japanese MNEs tend to locate their plants in the regions with relatively high wage level, low unemployment rate, high industrialisation and good infrastructure. These as a whole have negative meanings for the economic divergence among the regions, since less developed regions in CEECs failed to attract Japanese FDI.As a future research agenda, more precise investigation, the disinvestment of Japanese MNEs, the industry-specific character, and the macroeconomic aspects of FDI are pointed out.