International footprint of global firms: residence and nationality perspectives on maritime shipments

Key takeaways 

• Nationality-based measurement that consolidates firms according to the nationality of the ultimate parent firm provides new insights on questions of ownership and control that underpin the operation of global value chains.
• Nationality-based shipment data highlight significant "within-nationality" shipments, especially between entities of the same parent group, revealing a strikingly different picture of global shipments compared with conventional residence-based measures.
• Foreign subsidiaries operate under two distinct shipment models: the "outpost" model which relies on upstream counterparties from the parent region, common among Asian firms, and the "going-global" model characterised by globally distributed trading partners, prevalent among North American firms.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the BIS.