Clear insights on the role and activities of multinational enterprises (MNEs) are central to understanding global value chains (GVCs), the strong growth of which has dramatically challenged existing economic insights and policy implications related to globalisation. 
 

The challenge of collecting empirical evidence on MNEs has meant we have not always had the full picture of key issues in trade and industrial policy such as the role of MNEs in GVCs and how firms combine trade and investment in their cross-border activities. A better understanding of MNEs would allow for more informed debates about the role of these companies in the economy and in society more broadly.
 

To address the data deficit, the OECD has developed a new and comprehensive database on MNE activities across countries and industries. By linking to TiVA and the OECD Inter-country Inter-Industry Input-Output (ICIO) database, the Analytical Activities of MNEs (AMNE) database for the first time allows for the analysis of MNE activities in value-added terms.
 

This new database distinguishes between three types of firms: foreign affiliates (firms with at least 50% foreign ownership), domestic MNEs (domestic firms with foreign affiliates) and domestic firms not involved in international investment. To understand the breakdown of firm types we can take the Japanese automotive industry as an example. From the perspective of Japan, a majority Japanese-owned car manufacturer with affiliates in other countries would be classified as a domestic MNE; the majority owned affiliate of a French car manufacturer in Japan would be a foreign affiliate; and a majority Japanese-owned parts supplier with no foreign affiliates would fall into the category of domestic firms not involved in international investment.
 

The new database allows for detailed analysis of a broad range of important policy issues, including:
 

• What is the role of MNEs in today’s global economy? Are they as important as often argued?
   
• What is the relationship between trade and investment in the internationalisation strategies of MNEs? What is the trade-investment nexus in practice?
   
• What is the role and impact of foreign MNEs in the GVC activities of their host economies? To what extent do MNEs determine GVC participation and GVC upgrading of national economies?
   
• How important are the domestic linkages between foreign MNEs and the host economies? What are the economic effects – direct (in terms of employment, GDP, etc.) as well indirect – of foreign MNEs on national economies?
   
• Sales of services by foreign affiliates abroad are an important channel for MNEs to target and reach customers internationally. What is the importance of this Mode 3 in Trade in Services and why do firms choose to produce in this way?

 

Analytical papers 

• Multinational enterprises in domestic value chains (2019) 

• Multinational enterprises and global value chains: the OECD analytical AMNE database (2018)
   
• Multinational production and trade in services (2018)
   
• Multinational enterprises and global value chains: New insights on the trade-investment nexus (2018)

 

Policy notes and papers

• Multinational enterprises and intangible capital (2021)
   
• Multinational enterprises in the global economy: Heavily debated but hardly measured (2018, pdf)
   
• International trade and investment: Two sides of the same coin? (2018, pdf)

 

Workshop

• Workshop on multinational production (November 2018)

 

Database

The Analytical AMNE database includes a full matrix of the output of foreign affiliates in 59 countries plus the rest of the world (in the host country, industry, parent country dimension), as well as matrices for value-added, exports and imports of intermediate inputs (host country and industry) over the period 2005-2016. 34 unique industrial sectors are covered. A second set of matrices in the database provides information on output, value-added, exports and imports of intermediate inputs of domestic MNEs and non-MNE domestic firms (from 2008 onwards). In addition, split Inter-Country Input-Output tables are provided distinguishing for all countries the transactions of domestic-owned and foreign-owned firms. These tables can be used to analyse multinational production in value-added terms. The database was constructed on the basis of the OECD AMNE database which contains the official data on AMNE collected and published by national statistical offices (34 OECD countries, over 50 industries, since 1985). In order to estimate the missing information across countries and industries, additional national sources have been used and various statistical methodologies applied. It is important to note that analytical papers up to mid-2019 were based on a previous version of the database.

 

• More information on the database: Read Me (.xlsx)
• Output, value-added and trade (domestic-owned and foreign-owned firms): Analytical AMNE (.xlsx)
• Output, value-added and trade (including domestic MNEs): Analytical AMNE domestic MNEs (.xlsx)

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Inter-Country Input-Output tables split according to ownership (domestic-owned and foreign-owned firms). Downloads in .zip format:

• 2005
• 2006
• 2007
• 2008
• 2009
• 2010
• 2011
• 2012
• 2013
• 2014
• 2015
• 2016

 

Value-added decomposition of domestic sales of domestic-owned and foreign-owned firms: Domestic sales decomposition (.xlsx)

 

Contact

Questions and comments are invited and may be sent to analyticalAMNE@oecd.org.