Identifying Heterogeneity in the Production Components of Globally Engaged Business Enterprises in the United States

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.