Technology Capital and the US Current Account By
Technology Capital and the US Current Account By
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科技资本与美国经常账户
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发表时间：
2012
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影响因子：
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通讯作者：
E. Prescott
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作者：
Ellen R Mcgrattan;E. Prescott
美国经济分析局估计，1982年至2006年期间，美国跨国公司海外子公司的税后投资回报率平均为9.4%，而外国跨国公司美国子公司的投资回报率平均仅为3.2%。这些系列如图1所示。该图显示，这些回报的差异不仅平均很高，而且持续很高。此外，与美国企业在国内经营的估计回报率相比，海外投资回报率高出4至5个百分点，外国公司在美国的投资回报率低1至2个百分点。由于美国C类公司三分之一的利润来自其海外子公司，理解为什么他们的海外业务似乎比国内业务做得更好既有趣又重要。在本文中，我们估计的重要性，无法衡量的无形投资扭曲了外国直接投资的回报率。为此，我们建立了一个包含无形资本的多国一般均衡模型。主要的理论创新是包括两种不同类型的无形资本：技术资本，可以在多个地点使用和无形资本，是工厂特定的。技术资本的例子包括从研发（R&D）、品牌和组织投资中积累的技术诀窍，而不是特定于一个工厂。在国外使用的技术资本为没有外国直接投资的外国子公司产生租金。因此，鉴于技术资本，外国子公司发挥着至关重要的作用。我们采用与经济学家相同的方法来构建模型经济的经济统计数据。我们要强调的是，在我们的模型中，
The US Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that the return on investments of foreign subsidiaries of US multinational companies over the period 1982–2006 averaged 9.4 percent annually after taxes, whereas returns on investments of US subsidiaries of foreign multinationals averaged only 3.2 percent. These series are displayed in Figure 1. The figure shows that the differences in these returns are not only high on average but are persistently high. Furthermore, when compared with estimates of returns of US businesses on domestic operations, returns on investments abroad are 4 to 5 percentage points higher, and returns on investments made by foreign companies in the United States are 1 to 2 percentage points lower. Since one-third of US C-corporation profits come from their foreign subsidiaries, understanding why their foreign operations appear to be doing so much better than their domestic operations is both interesting and important. In this paper, we estimate the importance of unmeasured intangible investments that distort measured returns on foreign direct investment. We do this by developing a multicountry general equilibrium model that includes intangible capital. The main theoretical innovation is the inclusion of two distinct types of intangible capital: technology capital that can be used at multiple locations and intangible capital that is plant specific. Examples of technology capital include accumulated know-how from investments in research and development (R&D), brands, and organizations that is not specific to a plant. Technology capital used abroad generates rents for foreign subsidiaries with no foreign direct investment. Thus, given technology capital, foreign subsidiaries play an essential role. We apply the same methodology as the BEA to construct economic statistics for our model economy. We emphasize that the names for the BEA statistics are not appropriate in our model