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One-firm economies

By The Economist
From The Economist
Published: August 29, 2012

Finland’s fortunes are affected by one firm. What about other countries?

Aug 25th 2012 | from the print edition

NOKIA contributed a quarter of Finnish growth from 1998 to 2007, according to figures from the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA). Over the same period, the mobile-phone manufacturer’s spending on research and development made up 30% of the country’s total, and it generated nearly a fifth of Finland’s exports. In the decade to 2007, Nokia was sometimes paying as much as 23% of all Finnish corporation tax. No wonder that a decline in its fortunes—Nokia’s share price has fallen by 90% since 2007, thanks partly to Apple’s ascent—has clouded Finland’s outlook.

Are any other economies so reliant on one company? The researchers at ETLA calculate Nokia’s value-added to work out its importance to Finland, but such data are not widely available. A look at firms’ sales as a percentage of GDP (see table) offers a cruder indication of clout. We used the Dow Jones Global Index to identify firms whose revenues ranked highest in the country of their listing.

Firms like ArcelorMittal, Essar Energy and China Mobile make the top ten because of their choice of domicile; their economic activity mainly takes place elsewhere. Oil-and-gas firms feature heavily, although that may simply show that certain economies are dependent on a certain type of activity rather than a specific firm. Lower down the list the presence of Sands China, a casino developer and operator whose sales are 13% of Macao’s GDP, reflects the importance of gambling to the territory.

Strip these sorts of firms from the list and only one resembles Nokia: Taiwan’s Hon Hai, an electronics manufacturer. Yet Nokia made 27% of Finnish patent applications last year; the corresponding figure for Hon Hai was 8%. Although numbers are falling, Finland is home to the greatest number of Nokia employees; Hon Hai’s staff is mostly in China. It is a similar story with other firms. Sales of Nestlé, a consumer-goods company, weigh in at 15% of Swiss GDP but its share of Swiss jobs is punier than Nokia’s in Finland. Samsung, whose revenues are twice Nokia’s, has half its clout as a share of GDP: South Korea’s economy is more diversified. The importance of Nokia to Finland looks like a one-off.

from the print edition | Finance and economics

©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2012

Nokia拖垮芬蘭經濟？國家依賴單一企業困境

2012-08 Web only 作者：經濟學人

根據芬蘭經濟研究院（ETLA）的數據，1998至2007年間，芬蘭的成長有1/4來自Nokia。同一期間，Nokia的研發支出占全國30%，創造了近1/5的出口額，有時，更有高達23%的芬蘭企業稅收是來自Nokia。難怪，Nokia表現日益下滑、07年至今股價下跌90%，也讓芬蘭的前景猶如烏雲罩頂。

還有其他經濟體如此倚賴單一企業嗎？ETLA計算了Nokia的加值來評估Nokia對芬蘭的重要性，但這樣的資料並非隨手可得。不過，改以企業營收佔GDP比重來衡量，還是能大致看出企業的重要性。經濟學人使用道瓊全球指數，挑出了各國營收最高的上市公司。

ArcelorMittal、Essar Energy和中國移動能登上前十，主因在於上市地點，它們的經濟活動大多位於其他地方。排行榜中有不少石油天然氣公司，但那只代表某些經濟十分倚賴特定經濟活動，而非特定企業。而在排行榜之外，還有賭場開發和營運商金沙中國，金沙中國的營收佔澳門GDP的13%，也反映了賭博在澳門的重要性。

扣除這類企業，榜單上只剩一家類似Nokia的企業：台灣的電子製造商鴻海。不過，去年芬蘭的專利申請中，27%來自Nokia，鴻海只佔台灣去年專利申請的8%。Nokia在芬蘭的員工人數雖然在下滑，但芬蘭依舊是Nokia雇用最多員工的地方，而鴻海的員工大多在中國。

其他企業的情況也大致如此；雀巢的銷售額約合瑞士GDP的15%，但瑞士雇員比例低於Nokia的芬蘭雇員比例。三星的營收為Nokia的二倍，但在母國GDP的佔比只有Nokia的一半，表示南韓的經濟較為多元。如此看來，Nokia對母國的重要性，全世界沒有企業比得上。（黃維德譯）