Multinational Firms in the U.S. Economy: 

Insights from Newly Integrated Microdata

Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology Research and 

Policy Conference

Fariha Kamal, Jessica McCloskey, Wei Ouyang

October 2023
Disclaimers

Any opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the U.S. 

Census Bureau. The Census Bureau has ensured appropriate access and use of confidential data and has reviewed these 

results for disclosure avoidance protection (Project 6907751: CBDRB-FY21-CES007-003, CBDRB-FY22-CED006-0010, DMS 

6907751). 

The views expressed in this paper are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the U.S. Bureau of Economic 

Analysis (BEA) or the U.S. Department of Commerce. BEA has reviewed this paper for unauthorized disclosure of 

confidential information and has approved the disclosure avoidance practices applied to this release. The statistical 

analysis of firm-level data was conducted at a Federal Statistical Research Data Center under FSRDC Project Number 

6907751, under arrangements that maintain legal confidentiality requirements. (BEA-FY22-P6907751-R1).

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BEA – Census Linking Project

• Multiyear project led by Census Bureau (Census) 

researchers to link entity records from BEA’s 

international surveys to the Census Business 

Register 

• Resulting links are available for use by 

researchers in Federal Statistical Research Data 

Centers and are being used on internal BEA and 

Census projects to develop new statistics 

• Additional detail available in working paper 

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BEA Multinational Enterprise (MNE) Activities Surveys 

• ‘Outward’ MNE surveys – collect data 

from U.S. companies with foreign holdings

o U.S. parents and their foreign affiliates 

• ‘Inward’ MNE surveys – collect data 

from U.S. companies with foreign 

owners

o U.S. affiliates

• Annual data currently linked 

o Outward (BE-10/11): 1994 to 2019 

o Inward (BE-12/15): 1997 to 2019

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Census Business Register & Benefits of Linking 

• Census Business Register (BR) 

o Record of all U.S. business establishments and companies with paid employees sourced from tax filings

o Sampling frame for economic censuses and Census employer business surveys

o Links to a wide array of Census microdata products 

• Benefits of linking BEA’s firm-level surveys to the BR

o Granular sub-firm detail along industry and geographic lines

o MNE classifications and non-MNE comparisons

o Additional data elements

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...

2026

2025

Linking Methodology

• Each BEA survey is separately linked for each year 

o Include both reported and imputed (‘universe’) records 

o Initially excluded zero employment records, though those links are 

available now 

• Multiple round matching algorithms on various 

identification variables

• Ranking measure of strength is assigned to each link

o Quality threshold applied to determine if the link will be retained 

• Highest ranked link is designated as the final link

o Each BEA record links to at most one Census firm record in final file

o A given Census firm record can link to more than one BEA record

• Production-ready design allows for quick expansion to 

additional years

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Census Business 

Register (BR) 

BEA Firm-Level 

Surveys

2024

Tier 4 link

Tier 3 link

Tier 2 link

Tier 1 link
Iterative Matching Algorithms 

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Census Business 

Register (BR) 

BEA Firm-Level 

Surveys

NAME NAME

EIN EIN

Address Address

1

2

3

4

5

1

2

1

2

3

4

1

2

3

4

5

1

2

1

2

3

4

EIN 

Matching

• Up to two primary EINs from BEA records compared with near 

universe of employer EINs from BR records (payrolls & income tax 

EINs)

• Window matching uses current, adjacent, then further out years 

Name Variant 

Matching

• Five step deterministic matching based on original and 

standardized versions of text

• Two step probabilistic matching based on fuzzy matching + fourpart ML algorithm

Address 

Matching

• Street names, city, zip code, and state
Ranking Measure

• Ranking based on matching algorithm results + other factors 

• Complex structure with many possible values, but generally

o Clerical matches believed to be of high quality are given precedence 

o EIN matches with common zip, state, industry and a close 

employment ratio are next highest

o Among matching criteria, EIN matches rank higher than non-EIN; 

name + address rank higher than just name; type of name match also 

considered 

o Among other factors, multi-unit status ranks higher than industry, 

and industry rank higher than state

• Rank variable included in final link files allowing users to 

impose stricter criteria if desired

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Ranking Factors

• Multi-unit status

• Employment ratio

• Common industry

• Common state

• Common zip code

• Year of match
Employment-weighted Match Rates

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Employment-weighted Match Rates

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Using Links for MNE Type Classification

• Objective: identify firms that are part of MNEs, classify them as foreign or U.S. owned

o U.S. parent link => MNE, potentially U.S.-owned

o Majority-owned U.S. affiliate link => MNE, presumptively foreign-owned

o No links => non-MNE

• Census firms linked to both a U.S. parent and majority-owned U.S. affiliate are classified 

as foreign-owned MNEs, unless

o The linked U.S. affiliate has a U.S. ultimate beneficial owner* or

o The linked U.S. affiliate has negligible relative employment and is not recognized as the same reporting 

unit as the U.S. parent in BEA records

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*The ultimate beneficial owner (UBO) is that entity, proceeding up a U.S. affiliate’s ownership chain, beginning with and including 

the foreign parent, that is not owned more than 50 percent by another entity
Shares of Economic Activity by Multinational Status, 2017

7%

2%

91%

19%

6%

75%

26%

8%

66%

30%

13%

58%

41%

25%

34%

28% 29%

43%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

U.S.-owned MNE Foreign-owned MNE Non-MNE

Establishments Employment Annual Payroll Sales Merchandise Exports Merchandise Imports

Sources: Economic Census, LFTTD, BE-10/11-BR, BE-12/15-BR 12
Scope of Activity by Multinational Status, 2017

U.S.-owned MNE Foreign-owned MNE Non-MNE

Multi-Establishment 65% 35% 3.2%

Multi-Sector 46% 23% .8%

Multi-State 56% 29% .9%

Average number of:

Establishments 96 20 1.23

Industries (4-digit) 3 2 1.02

States 8 3 1.03

Counties 14 5 1.08

Product Exports (HS6) 23 17 5

Product Imports (HS6) 21 16 6

Sources: Economic Census, LFTTD, BE-10/11-BR, BE-12/15-BR 13
Productivity and Multinational Status, 2017

• MNEs have substantially higher payroll and sales per worker on average, even after 

adjusting for industry composition 

• Consistent with findings that MNEs have higher productivity and employ higher skilled 

workers

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($1,000s) U.S.-owned MNE Foreign-owned MNE Non-MNE

Average Payroll Per Worker 58.8 56.2 39.4

Difference from industry average 9.6 10.8 -1.04

Average Sales Per Worker 539.7 649.2 227.5

Difference from industry average 212.1 286.1 -24.3

Difference from industry average = the average difference in the establishment reported values and corresponding detailed industry 

average.

Sources: Economic Census, BE-10/11-BR, BE-12/15-BR
Average Sales by Sector and Multinational Status, 1997-2017

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

U.S.-owned MNE Foreign-owned MNE Non-MNE

Sources: Economic Census, BE-10/11-BR, BE-12/15-BR 15
Ongoing and Future Work 

• Experimental Business Dynamics Statistics (BDS) for Globally Engaged Firms

o Using links between the BR and administrative trade records, business dynamics statistics for goods 

traders were released in 2021 and updated last year 

o Currently working on developing similar statistics for multinationals using the MNE links 

o Future work will extend service survey links and other sources to create statistics for services traders

• BDS use the Longitudinal Business Database to track changes over time in 

o Employment - job creation and destruction

o Job expansions and contractions

o Number of establishments and firms 

o Establishment openings and closings

o Number of startups and firm shutdowns

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References and Additional Information

• Kamal, McCloskey, and Ouyang (2022). “Multinational Firms in the U.S. Economy: 

Insights from Newly Integrated Microdata” BEA Working Paper 2022-11, 

https://www.bea.gov/system/files/papers/BEA-WP2022-11.pdf

• Business Dynamics Statistics program, https://www.census.gov/programssurveys/bds.html

• Business Dynamics Statistics of U.S. Goods Traders, https://www.census.gov/programssurveys/ces/data/public-use-data/experimental-bds/bds-goods-traders.html

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Thank you!

Contact:

Jessica McCloskey, Jessica.McCloskey@bea.gov
Sector Groupings

Sector Short Name Full Name

21-23 Mining+ Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction; Utilities; Construction

31-33 Manufacturing Manufacturing

42 Wholesale Wholesale Trade

44-45 Retail Retail Trade

48-49 Transportation Transportation and Warehousing

51 Information Information

52 Finance Finance and Insurance

53 Real Estate Real Estate and Rental and Leasing

54 Professional Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

55 Management Management of Companies and Enterprises

56 Administrative Administrative Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services

61-81 Other Services Educational Services; Health Care and Social Assistance; Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation; 

Accommodation and Food Services; Other Services (except Public Administration)

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