MNE and where to find them: An intertemporal perspective on the global ownership network

This paper introduces a simple procedure to construct ownership maps in Stata, uses a new method to map the development of the global network of multinational business groups over time and investigates the development of core components of the network. Based on Bureau van Dijk's ORBIS database, a full panel of ownership structures from 2000-2018 is reconstructed. The data is subjected to a descriptive analysis and subsequently used to identify key locations within the network. Ownership structures are used to identify outliers in the network even in the absence of financial data on the firm level. The identified locations largely overlap with results in the literature, but also point towards previously overlooked destinations. The aggregate ownership network at the country level is used to provide an intertemporal perspective on countries' development paths within the global network of multinational companies and sheds new light on MNE's expansion paths.