This paper presents experimental tables created by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis comparing industry-specific shares of the components of total output of globally engaged firms located in the United States that are part of a multinational enterprise (U.S. parents and U.S. affiliates) with those of firms that are part of an enterprise entirely located in the United States. Recent research has shown both the importance of accounting for trade in value added when estimating bilateral trade flows and that multinational enterprises located in the United States account for the lion's share of U.S. trade in goods and services. However, trade in value added is typically accounted for using input-output tables that are aggregated across all types of firms. The experimental tables are consistent with other research showing that value added as a share of output is lower for foreign-owned firms compared with domestic-owned firms and that exports and imports as a share of output is larger for foreign-owned firms. We also find heterogeneity in the composition of output among different types of domestic-owned firms. Future work will analyze this heterogeneity in more detail using establishment-level data on production and trade.
for their valuable comments. The statistical analysis of firm-level data on U.S. multinational companies was conducted at the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce, under arrangements that maintain legal confidentiality requirements. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce, the United States government or the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.
Trade Commission. Office of Economics working papers are the result of the ongoing professional research of USITC Staff and are solely meant to represent the opinions and professional research of individual authors. These papers are not meant to represent in any way the views of the U.S. International Trade Commission or any of its individual Commissioners. Working papers are circulated to promote the active exchange of ideas between USITC Staff and recognized experts outside the USITC, and to promote professional development of Office staff by encouraging outside professional critique of staff research.
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