Estimation of Treatment Effects of Foreign Direct Investment on the Performance of Russian Companies in the Food Industry

In the present study, the effect of foreign direct investment on the economic performance of companies is estimated by different methods: estimation of the treatment effect assuming the exogeneity of its nature and estimation of the treatment effect assuming the endogeneity of its nature. In other words, the paper investigates the question of how the presence of a foreign owner is reflected in the results of the company's activity in the food industry. The sample included financial indicators of more than 5000 enterprises of food industry for 2008-2017 in 78 regions of the Russian Federation. As the results showed, the evaluation of the treatment effect was stable depending on different methods. In addition to financial indicators, the study also examines the impact of spatial lags, geographical characteristics of the region and the level of investment risk in the region on the probability of the presence of a foreign investor in the company. The impact of sanctions on the performance of firms with FDI and firms without foreign investors has not gone unnoticed.