Globalization and Multinational Companies: What Are the Questions, and How Well Are We Doing in Answering Them?

This paper looks at the U.S. experience and uses it as a benchmark for identifying the key questions that are being asked about the role and influence of MNC's and the types of statistics that are required to answer those questions. The paper goes on to assess whether the U.S. 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 now are asking about the impact of foreign direct investment.

Measuring the New Economy

This paper provides background information on the new economy and how it relates to BEA’s economic accounts. It is designed to answer the following questions: What is the new economy? Why is it important that the new economy be captured in GDP and BEA’s other economic accounts estimates? What do we know now about the size and impact of the new economy? Where does the new economy show up in the accounts? How well is the new economy recorded in the accounts? What should be BEA’s highest priority in improving the capacity of the accounts to measure the new economy?