This study revisits the nexus between foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade in the dynamic perspective, focusing on intermediate goods imports of affiliates of Japanese firms operating in China. To examine the effect of the formation of the agglomeration and the recent FDI made by small firms, both of which have been overlooked in the literature, we construct a unique parent-affiliate matched panel data set of trade in intermediate goods, and estimate a discrete-time hazard model over the 2000–06 period. We found that affiliates owned by firms in agglomerated regions in Japan have a shorter duration of trade in intermediate goods compared with affiliates owned by smaller Japanese firms.

This study uses firm-level data on Japanese automobile parts suppliers to investigate the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic corporate performance. We use the automobile makers’ FDI as an instrumental variable for suppliers’ FDI and estimate the impact of both the extensive and intensive margins of FDI. We find that whereas the intensive margin of FDI does not significantly impact corporate performance, the extensive margin positively influences sales and total factor productivity. Furthermore, the impact of the initial FDI entry brings stronger effects than that of subsequent FDI flows.