Multinational companies and entrant start-up size:: Evidence from quantile regressions

This paper analyses the impact of foreign multinationals on the start-up size of domestic entrants in Irish manufacturing industries. We use the regression quantile estimator, which allows us to take account of the heterogeneity of entrants' start-up size. Estimation results show that the presence of foreign multinationals in a sector impacts negatively on the start-up size of domestic entrants of all sizes in modern sectors and on the start-up size of large domestic entrants in traditional sectors. This negative effect may be attributed to competition of domestic plants with foreign multinationals and other domestic plants in the final goods and/or the intermediate goods market.