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PurposeThis paper aims to examine the relationship between foreign ownership and firm performance, using an approach which the authors show is more advanced than existing methods, and more aligned with accepted theory and conceptual frameworks developed in international business. The authors demonstrate that simply relying on a binary distinction between foreign and domestic firms ignores much of the information regarding the importance of ownership structure and is disconnected from the wider literature on ownership structure, motivations for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors illustrate this by using a threshold estimation method to endogenously uncover the level of foreign ownership up to which the transfer of foreign firm advantage from the parent company to the affiliate is the strongest.FindingsThe results show that for Germany, Poland, Italy and the UK, there are significantly different thresholds of foreign ownership over the period, 2001-2010. Due to non-linearities and different thresholds, the authors argue that before one can entertain secondary considerations concerning foreign firm impact on host countries, one needs to apply the appropriate approach.Originality/valueThis is the first paper that uses an endogenous threshold approach on a large firm level data set to show that there are significant differences and non-linearities in the relationship between foreign ownership and productivity.

AbstractThis paper addresses endogeneity of inputs in estimating a semiparametric smooth coefficient production function using a system approach. The system consists of a translog production function and the first‐order conditions (FOC) of profit maximization. Each coefficient of the production function is an unknown function of some exogenous environmental variables. This makes the production function observation‐specific so long as the environmental variables are observation‐specific. The estimation of the system involves applying the functional coefficient instrumental variable method (Cai et al., 2006) for the endogeneity of inputs in the first step, and the semiparametric smooth coefficient seemingly unrelated regression method (Henderson et al., 2015) in the second step. Using a Chinese food industry data set, we show that the semiparametric system approach gives the most economically meaningful input elasticity estimates compared with alternative models. We also calculate the returns to scale along with the technical and allocative inefficiency estimates.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for integration of mental health into primary care for a decade. In Western countries, around 15% to 25% of patients with common mental disorders including mood and anxiety disorders seek help from primary care physicians (PCPs). The rate is only about 5% in China. Aims: This article reviews the Chinese findings on the barriers to primary care for common mental disorders and how they compared with Western findings. Methods: A narrative literature review was conducted, focusing on literature published from mid-1990s in English or Chinese. Patient, PCP and health system factors were reviewed. Results: Although Chinese and Western findings show similar themes of barriers, the Chinese have stronger barriers in most aspects, including under-recognition of the need for treatment, stigma on mental illness, somatization, worries about taking psychiatric drugs, uncertainties in the role, competency and legitimacy of PCPs in mental health care and short consultation time. Conclusion: Current policies in China emphasize enhancement of mental health facilities and workforce in the community. Our review suggests that patients' intention to seek help and PCPs' competency in mental health care are other fundamental factors to be addressed.