Globalization and multinational companies: What are the questions,and how well are we doing in answering them?

Abstract

Globalization has placed new demands on statistical agencies to provide the information necessary to inform policy in today's increasingly interdependent world economy. This paper looks at the US experience and uses it as a benchmark for identifying the key questions that are being asked about the role and influence of multinational companies and the types of statistics that are required to answer those questions. The paper goes on to assess whether the US statistics that are now available are adequate to help us answer those questions. Finally, it identifies steps that might be considered to address data weaknesses and to help policy makers and other data users – both in the United States and abroad – better answer the important questions that they are asking about the impact of foreign direct investment.