May 2018

Multinational enterprises in the global economy

Heavily debated but hardly measured

The OECD analytical AMNE database

MNEs now and in the past

Why FDI and MNE data do not measure the same

Activities under foreign control

Growing production by foreign affiliates

Important differences across regions and countries…

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

0

5

10

15

20

25

output by foreign affiliates (left axis) output share by foreign affiliates (right axis)

… as well as industries

Foreign affiliates are different from domestic companies

70%

17%

13%

93%

3% 3%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

OECD BRIICS Rest of the world

inward 2014 outward 2014 : 2000

MNE activities at home and abroad

Almost one-third of global production is done by MNEs

67%

90%

33%

10%

Foreign affiliatesDomestic firms

Exports

Domestic sales

75%89%

25%11%

Foreign affiliatesDomestic firms

Foreign value-added

Domesticvalue-added

39%48%

61%52%

Foreign affiliatesDomestic firms

Intermediateinputs

Value-added

MNEs also account for half of global exports, almost one-third of world GDP and about one-fourth of employment

100

World

output

Domestic

MNE

Foreign

affiliates

21

67

12

33

Domestic-

owned firms

MNE

A number of (policy) considerations

12 10

31 28

7

2118

2421

16

6772

4451

77

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

output GDP exports imports employment

foreign affiliates domestic MNEs domestic non-MNEs

Further reading