Holger Görg

A second area of Görg's research is foreign direct investment (FDI). In particular, Görg argues that a firm entering a foreign market via FDI is generally best off by acquiring an existing indigenous high-technology firm in order to form a duopoly with an indigenous low-technology firm instead of setting up an entirely new plant (greenfield investment). Together with Strobl and Frank Barry, he moreover finds that both "efficiency agglomerations", i.e. increases in firms' efficiency due to reductions in the distance between them, and "demonstration effects", i.e. firms' signals to new investors that the host country is reliable and attractive, were important determinants of U.S. firm entry into Ireland. Reviewing the literature on FDI and intra-industry spillovers with David Greenaway, Görg and Greenaway conclude that empirical evidence for a positive impact of foreign direct investment through productivity, wage and export spillovers from the pre-2000s is at best mixed and warrants further research. In another study with Strobl and Barrios, Görg finds that while inward FDI in Ireland may have initially deterred the entry of local firms by signalling an increase in competition, this initial effect has been exceeded by positive externalities fostering the development of local firms, resulting in an overall strongly positive impact of FDI on the local economy. With Girma, he also finds that British establishments' ability to benefit from productivity spillovers from FDI depends on their absorptive capacity. Finally, Görg and Paolo Figini argue that the impact of FDI on wage inequality depends on countries' economic development: In developing countries, inward FDI degressively increases wage inequality, whereas inward FDI in developed countries decreases wage inequality.

Holger Görg earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in economics from Trinity College Dublin in 1996 and 1999, partly while working as a lecturer at the University College Cork. After his graduation, Görg worked as a lecturer at the University of Ulster (1999-2000) before becoming a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Nottingham's Leverhulme Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy (2000–03). Thereafter, he worked as a lecturer (assistant professor) (2003–05) and then as a reader (associate professor) in international economics in Nottingham (2005–08). Since 2008, Görg has worked in Germany, where he holds the position of Professor of International Economics at the University of Kiel and heads the research area "Global Division of Labour" at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). Moreover, he has been the Director of the Kiel Centre for Globalization, an interdisciplinary research centre focused on the analysis of global supply chains, since 2016. Additionally, Görg maintains affiliations with the Tuborg Research Centre for Globalisation and Firms at Aarhus University, and the IZA Institute of Labor Economics.

A third research area in Görg's work studies the exports of firms. Together with Barrios and Strobl, Görg observes that, in the 1990s, own R&D activity made Spanish firms more likely to export, while R&D spillovers increase firms' export ratios, especially if they are exporting to other OECD countries; by contrast, there is little evidence for export spillovers. In research with Girma and Strobl, he moreover finds that multinational plants in the UK perform better than domestic exporters and non-exporters, which perform roughly about the same. Görg, Girma and Mauro Pisu argue that the effects from productivity spillovers from FDI on domestic firms are very complex and differ substantially depending on whether the domestic firm operates in the export market as well as on the type of inward FDI. Additionally, Görg, Girma and Aoife Hanley find that previous exporting experience enhances the innovative capability of Irish firms, whereas British firms don't display strong learning-by-exporting effects, with differences being partly attributable to Irish firms' greater interface with OECD markets. Finally, Görg, Strobl and Michael Henry assess that if export grants are large enough, they can encourage already exporting firms to compete more effectively on the international market, though grants don't appear to encourage nonexporters to start exporting.

Holger Görg (born 1970) is a German economist who currently works as Professor of International Economics at the University of Kiel. Görg also leads the Kiel Center for Globalization and heads the Research Area "Global Division of Labour" at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. In 2009, he was awarded the Gossen Prize for his contributions to the study of firms' decisions to invest, export and outsource parts of their value chains abroad.