In Focus: Global Supply Chains

Globalization has led to substantial changes in economic activity, a key aspect of which has been the fragmentation of production and supporting services activities. A variety of economic forces may drive firms to locate production and other activities abroad, leading to the formation of global supply chains. Global supply chains are worldwide networks of organization, technology, activities, information, and resources involved in moving a product from a supplier to a consumer.

While no one set of statistics fully captures their complexity, BEA publishes a variety of international trade and investment statistics that can provide valuable insight about global supply chains. BEA periodically highlights such insights in this In Focus: Global Supply Chains collection of Survey of Current Business articles. These articles are part of a broader BEA initiative to measure global supply chains.

Articles

U.S. Multinationals' Services Trade by Industry and Employment Size Class

BEA data on services trade by enterprise characteristics convey an understanding of the types of multinational enterprises that trade in services. This article examines how U.S. trade in selected services varies by firm size and industry.

March 20, 2025

Changes in Host Country Employment for U.S. Multinational Enterprises, 2009–2022

BEA employment data, both domestic and foreign, of MNEs provide insight into the impact of U.S. MNEs on the U.S. and foreign host country economies. The featured charts provide a clear view of time series trends of the top host countries.

December 23, 2024

Global Supply Chains and Global Value Chains

Global supply chains (GSCs) and global value chains (GVCs) are two terms often used to describe the fragmentation of production and supporting services activities across countries. While GSCs and GVCs share a similar structure, their focuses differ. The structure of both GSCs and GVCs relates to a network of activities undertaken by firms to bring a product from its conception to its end use. The network includes activities such as product conception, research and development, design, sourcing raw materials, production, disposal and recycling, transportation and distribution, marketing and sales, and after-sales services to the final consumer. GSCs highlight the movement of products along the network of production and support activities, while GVCs focus on the creation of value at each stage in the network.¹

BEA is contributing to the analysis of GVCs by developing prototype statistics on trade in value added. These statistics identify the domestic and imported inputs used to create a U.S. industry’s exports and shed light on how U.S. industries contribute to global production. BEA is also researching the preparation of extended supply and use tables, focused on the role of MNEs within U.S. industries.

This paragraph is based on descriptions in U.N. Economic Commission for Europe, Guide to Measuring Global Production (New York and Geneva: United Nations, 2015).