Issues and Commentaries Issues et commentaires Are Foreign-Controlled Manufacturing Firms Less R&D-Intensive than Canadian- Controlled Firms?

Using firm-level data, this paper examines the R&D intensity (R&D per unit of output) of foreign-controlled and Canadian-controlled firms based in Canada. The empirical results suggest that foreign-controlled firms, after accounting for the influence of other factors, are less R&D-intensive than Canadian-controlled firms, and this gap has not narrowed during the past ten years. On average, R&D intensity tends to be higher in high-tech and export-oriented firms, compared to low and medium technology and non-exporting firms. However, despite a lower R&D intensity, foreign-controlled firms based in Canada are more productive and pay higher wages than Canadian-controlled firms. These results in turn suggest that foreign-controlled firms benefit heavily from technology and knowledge transfer from their parent companies.