Детерминантите на локациските одлуки на мултинационалните компании

Abstract

The aim of the thesis was on a basis of an analysis of a high number of empiric and theoretical studies and own research to contribute towards identifying relevant location determinants that have influence on location of the foreign direct investments in different types of countries as well as in Macedonia. The analysis of the results of the empiric studies show that the market size and the market growth of the host country is one of the most important location determinants for developed, developing and transition economies. In developing countries the location determinants of a high importance are also the availability of highly skilled labour force, openness of the country, preferential tax policies and quality of infrastructure. In these countries, due to the underdeveloped institutions and legal systems, institutional variables become equally important as economic ones. Relevant determinants are also political stability, level of corruption and functioning of administration. For the transition countries, in addition to the determinants relevant for developing countries, as relevant determinants are transition-specific ones, such as: privatisation method, country risk, geographical proximity to EU countries, integration in EU, and political –institutional, such as liberalisation, governance of law, quality of administration and institutions as well as civil and political rights and level of corruption. The perception of the importance of the location determinants by the foreign investors expressed via method of questionnaires and surveys show that most important are: macroeconomic stability, political stability, than quality of telecommunications, availability and cost of the highly skilled labour, corporate taxes and quality of the banking and financial services. The analyses of the perception of the foreign investors in Macedonia shows that of the highest importance is the corporate taxation, than political and macroeconomic stability, personal taxation and investment incentives. The supply of highly skilled labour is far more important than availability of unskilled labour. Additional analyses per sectors and type of investment (horisontal or vertical) shows variety of factor rankings. For the natural resource-based type of companies the most important factors are taxation and investment incentives, as well as the access to foreign markets. The manufacturing companies give the priority to the energy costs, corporate and personal income taxation. Highly ranked are also supply of highly skilled labour and the costs of low skilled labour. The access to foreign markets is more important than access to local market. For the services companies the most important factors are political and macroeconomic stability as well as the quality of the telecommunications. Corporate taxation and investment incentives are also highly ranked. For the vertical type of companies the most important factors are taxation, political stability and supply of highly skilled labour. For the horisontal type of companies the most important factores are: corporate taxation, investment incentives and proximity to customers. The results of the survey regarding the factor-bariers show that bigest bariers in doing business in Macedonia are the confidence in the legal system as well as the reliable regulatory framework. On the basis of the performed assessing of the competitiveness of the Macedonian corporate tax system according to the Devereux-Griffith methodology, our conclusion is that Macedonia has the lowest effective average tax rate in comparison to the other European countries for which there is such available data. The results of our research show that Macedonia is really competitive with respect to the determinant that has been assessed with the highest importance by the foreign investors. Assessing that Macedonian corporate tax system is designed favourably for the foreign investors, we have tried further to assess whether it is well designed for location of the holding-companies. On the basis of the performed analyses and comparisons of the relevant characteristics of the Macedonian tax system with those of the well known holding locations, such as Netherlands, Cyprus, Ireland as well as those in the countries in the region, it can be concluded that from the taxation characteristics perspective Macedonia could be characterised as a medium to good holding location.