Linking Data Across International Survey Programs

Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology Research and Policy Conference

October 26, 2023

Jennifer Bruner* and Alexis Grimm 

The views expressed in this presentation are those of the presenter and do not necessarily represent the position of the U.S. Bureau of 

Economic Analysis or the U.S. Department of Commerce.

* Presenting author
Roadmap

• Background and motivation

• Data and methods

• Key findings 

o All services traders (by industry)

o By firm type (by partner countries, trade activities) 

• Future plans

• More information

12/7/2023

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Background: BEA International Surveys

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International transactions in 

services 

(“trade in services”)

• Financial services; insurance services; 

and charges for the use of intellectual 

property and selected services

• Lots of detail on transactions 

• Very little detail on the U.S. transactors

Activities of multinational 

enterprises 

(“AMNE”)

• U.S. parents and their foreign affiliates

• Foreign-owned U.S. affiliates

• Covers many aspects of the firm’s 

finances and operations

Each of BEA’s trade in services and AMNE surveys is 

conducted as a distinct collection system. To use these 

data together, a bridge is needed
Motivation: Expanding STEC statistics and supporting research

• AMNE surveys can provide more information about services traders than is available 

from the services surveys alone. By linking the survey data, BEA can:

o Expand its offerings of Services Trade by Enterprise Characteristic (STEC) statistics and allow 

international comparisons

o Complement U.S. statistics on goods trade by enterprise characteristics (TEC)

o Better understand trade in services

o Enable new research and insights based on linked firm-level data

o Improve the quality of BEA’s trade in services and AMNE statistics

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Defining Selected Services: In-scope services for statistics on 

firm characteristics

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Data: Defining firm types

• U.S. units of ultimately 

U.S.-owned MNEs 

(“U.S.-owned MNEs”) 

• U.S. units of ultimately 

foreign-owned MNEs 

(“foreign-owned MNEs”)

• U.S. business enterprises 

that are neither U.S. 

parents nor MOUSAs 

(“non-MNEs”) 

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Not in a direct 

investment 

relationship

U.S. parents

MOUSA: Majority-owned U.S. affiliate

UBO: Ultimate beneficial owner

U.S. affiliates
Methods: Progress on linking BEA international surveys

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• Covered 2006-2009 

• Simple linking method

• Separate links to U.S. parents and U.S. affiliates

2012

• Covered 2008-2017

• More advanced linking methods and automation

• Used text mining techniques to streamline variable standardization 

• Web scraping to validate by address

• Linked among MNEs and reconciled those that are both parents and 

affiliates

2019

• Covered 2006-2022

• More link improvements

• Improved clarity on MNE overlaps

2023
Note on terminology

12/7/2023

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• May be established between entities based on a common value of Match a particular variable, such as EIN, name, or address

• A match that has been validated via additional checks beyond the 

shared value of the matching variable Link

Bridge • A set of links between reporters on two sets of survey data 
Methods: Constructing the bridge between surveys

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Data preparation

• Standardize all text 

fields

• Use text mining to 

identify common 

terms

• Leverage all 

available 

information

Match on key 

variables

• Stronger to weaker 

identifiers

• Names, employer 

identifier numbers, 

email addresses, 

phone numbers

Validation and 

refinement

• Check alternative 

identifiers

• Score matches to 

facilitate evaluation

• Checks across 

surveys
Methods: Deterministic matching procedure

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Began with earliest year and worked forward

Several matching rounds for each year

After each matching round, validation 

procedures were applied

Prior year links were brought forward if valid 

reporters were still in the data

Any services reporter without a valid prior 

year link was eligible for matching each year

Note: 

• Each services reporter 

may link to only one 

MNE, but an MNE 

may link to multiple 

service reporters.

• Once a services 

reporter linked to an 

MNE, it was no longer 

eligible for matching 

in later rounds.
Composition of services links by type of match, 2022

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Links to U.S. affiliates Links to U.S. parents
Key findings

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By industry sector, finance and insurance accounts for the largest 

share of both exports and imports of services.

MNEs have accounted for most of both exports and imports 

of services for many years. 

Country patterns in services trade vary by firm type.

A substantial share of services trade by MNEs, especially U.S.-

owned MNEs, is by firms that are both exporters and importers.
U.S. Trade in Selected Services by Multinational Activity, 2006-2022

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Exports Imports

Note: 

• The percent of 

total selected 

services trade 

for each firm 

type is displayed 

on the bars.
Trade by firm type and selected partner country, 2022

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U.S.-owned 

MNEs

Foreignowned MNEs Non-MNEs

U.S.-owned 

MNEs

Foreignowned MNEs Non-MNEs

Exports Imports
Trade by firm type and type of trade activity, 2022

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Future plans

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2024 and beyond

• Begin to publish “Profile of U.S. Exporters and Importers of 

Services” statistics annually

• Continue to apply linking methods to other external data

o Digital economy

o Federal Financial Institution Examination Council

• Incorporate probabilistic matching into the linking procedure

• Further reduce need for analyst review

• Explore other applications to supplement and extend 

information from our surveys

Near term

(2023)

Longer term

(2024 and 

beyond)
More information: Analysis

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The report will be released later this year in 

the Survey of Current Business, the journal of 

the U.S. BEA. The Survey can be found under 

News on the BEA home page or directly via 

https://apps.bea.gov/scb/
More information: Data

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The new and revised data will be 

available via BEA’s interactive 

data tables (“iTables”) under 

Tools on the BEA home page. 

The data may also be accessed 

directly via this link.

Then, navigate to 

International Services

Data on characteristics of firms that trade 

services are in tables 6.1 – 6.2 in the 

International Services iTables

From this page, launch the 

Interactive Data Tables
Presenter contact details

Jennifer Bruner

Research and Methodologies Group | International Economic Accounts

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

Email: jennifer.bruner@bea.gov |Phone: 301-278-9286 

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