< Back to Current Version

U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues

Changes from November 5, 2009 to July 28, 2010

This page shows textual changes in the document between the two versions indicated in the dates above. Textual matter removed in the later version is indicated with red strikethrough and textual matter added in the later version is indicated with blue.


U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues James K. Jackson Specialist in International Trade and Finance November 5, 2009July 28, 2010 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov RS21118 CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues Summary The United States is the largest investor abroad and the largest recipient of direct investment in the world. For some Americans, the national gains attributed to investing overseas are offset by such perceived losses as displaced U.S. workers and lower wages. Some observers believe U.S. firms invest abroad to avoid U.S. labor unions or high U.S. wages, however, 70% of U.S. foreign direct investment is concentrated in high income developed countries. Even more striking is the fact that the share of investment going to developing countries has fallen in recent years. Most economists conclude that direct investment abroad does not lead to fewer jobs or lower incomes overall for Americans and that the majority of jobs lost among U.S. manufacturing firms over the past decade reflect a broad restructuring of U.S. manufacturing industries. Congressional Research Service U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues Contents Recent Investments .....................................................................................................................1 U.S. Multinationals .....................................................................................................................4 Employment ...............................................................................................................................5 Conclusions ................................................................................................................................6 Figures Figure 1. Foreign Direct Investment in the United States and U.S. Direct Investment Abroad, Annual Flows, 1990-20082009 (in billions of dollars).........................................................2 Tables Table 1. U.S. Direct Investment Position Abroad on a Historical-Cost Basis at Year-End 20082009 ........................................................................................................................................3 Contacts Author Contact Information ........................................................................................................7 Congressional Research Service U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues Recent Investments New spending by U.S. firms on businesses and real estate abroad, or U.S. direct investment abroad,1 although substantial, fell slightly in 2008by almost one-fourth in 2009 compared to 20072008, reflecting the financial crisis and the economic downturn. Net investments fell from $333 $351 billion in 2007 to $3182008 to $269 billion in 20082009, according to the Department of Commerce. 2 A sharp drop 2 A drop in U.S. direct investment abroad that occurred in 2005 reflects actions by U.S. parent firms to reduce the amount of reinvested earnings going to their foreign affiliates for distribution to the U.S. parent firms in order to take advantage of one-time tax provisions in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-357). Generally, relative rates of growth between U.S. and foreign economies largely determine the direction and magnitude of direct investment flows. These flows also are affected by relative rates of inflation, interest rates, and expectations about the performance of national economies, which means they can be quite erratic at times. The drop in U.S. direct investment abroad in 20082009 compared with 20072008 reflected an increasea sharp drop in equity capital, a decreaseturnaround in intercompany debt, an increase from positive to negative, a slight decrease in reinvested earnings arising from an increase in a decrease in distributed earnings, and a large currency devaluation.. The sharp drop in stock market valuations around the world in 2008 devalued U.S. direct investment abroad, measured at market value, by $2.2 trillion. During the same period, the market value of foreign firms operating in the United states experienced a loss of over $1.0 trillion in 2008. In 2009, the recovery of foreign stock markets increased the value of U.S.-owned foreign securities by over $1 trillion, while the value of foreign-owned U.S. stocks rose by over $600 billion. Since the mid-1990s, the combination of strong growth and low inflation in the U.S. economy has attracted foreign investors, as indicated in Figure 1. From 2002 to 2007, U.S. direct investment abroad averaged more than twice the amount foreigners invested in the U.S. economy, reflecting the period of slower growth in the economy from 2001-2003. Data for the first two quarters of 2009 indicate that U.S. direct investment abroad is about half the amount recorded in the comparable period in 2008. Such investments way well pick up in the second half of the year as In 2009, both U.S. and foreign direct investment dropped from the values of the previous year, but U.S. direct investment abroad was double the amount foreigners invested in U.S. businesses and real estate. Such investments way well pick up in the first half of 2010 as the rate of economic growth improves. On the whole, U.S. firms are the most prolific overseas investors: a recent study by the United Nations indicates that U.S. firms are the largest foreign direct investors in the world and own as much abroad as the British and Germans combined, the next largest foreign direct investors. 1 The United States defines direct investment abroad as the ownership or control, directly or indirectly, by one person (individual, branch, partnership, association, government, etc.) of 10% or more of the voting securities of an incorporated business enterprise or an equivalent interest in an unincorporated business enterprise. 15 CFR § 806.15 (a)(1). 2 Weinberg, Douglas B.Thomas, Sarah Scott, Erin M. Whitaker, and Gregory A. TenentesDaniel R. Yorgason, U.S. International Transactions: Fourth quarter and Year 2008. First Quarter 2010. Survey of Current Business, April 2009, p. 28July 2010, p. 54. Direct investment data reported in the balance of payments differ from capital flow data reported elsewhere, because the balance of payments data have not been adjusted for current cost adjustments to earnings. Congressional Research Service 1 U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues Figure 1. Foreign Direct Investment in the United States and U.S. Direct Investment Abroad, Annual Flows, 1990-20082009 (in billions of dollars) $350 Billions of dollars $300 Foreign Direct Investment in the United S tates $250 $200 $150 $100 U.S . Direct Investment Abroad $50 $0 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 Year 500 $400 $300 $200 $100 19 90 19 91 19 92 19 93 19 94 19 95 19 96 19 97 19 98 19 99 20 00 20 01 20 02 20 03 20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 $0 U.S. Direct Investment Abroad Foreign Direct Investment in the U.S. Source: U.S. Department of Commerce Note: The drop in U.S. direct investment abroad in 2005 reflects actions by U.S. parent firms to reduce the amount of reinvested earnings going to their foreign affiliates for distribution to the U.S. parent firms in order to take advantage of one-time tax provisions in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-357). Table 1 indicates that the overseas direct investment position of U.S. firms on a historical-cost basis,3 or the cumulative amount at book value, reached $3.25 trillion in 20082009, the latest year for such investment position data.4 MoreSlightly less than 70% of these overseas investments are in developed developed countries: Europe alone accounts for over half of all U.S. direct investment abroad, or $1.8 $2 trillion. Europe has been a prime target of U.S. investment since U.S. firms first invested abroad abroad in the 1860s. American firms began investing heavily in Europe following World War II as European countries rebuilt their economies and later when they formed an intra-European economic union. 3 The position, or stock, is the net book value of U.S. parent company’s equity in, and outstanding loans to, their affiliates abroad. A change in the position in a given year consists of three components: equity and intercompany inflows, reinvested earnings of incorporated affiliates, and valuation adjustments to account for changes in the value of financial assets. The Commerce Department also publishes data on the U.S. direct investment position valued on a current-cost and market value bases. These estimates indicate that U.S. direct investment abroad measured at current cost increased by $247 billion, but fell when measured by market value by $2.2 trillion in 2008, to reach $3.7 and $3.1 308 billion and rose by $1.2 trillion in 2009 when measured by market value, to reach $4.1 trillion and $4.3 trillion, respectively. 4 Ibarra, Marilyn, and Jennifer Koncz, Direct Investment Positions for 2008: Country and Industry Detail, Survey of Current Business, July, 2009. p. 32. Congressional Research Service 2 U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues Table 1. U.S. Direct Investment Position Abroad on a Historical-Cost Basis at Year-End 2008 (in millions of dollars) Holding companies Other 81,242 1,128,538 212,409 32,728 8,164 30,511 33,472 80,823 328,307 53,845 750,883 116,716 -758 (D) 31,434 1,811 2,857 (D) 4,850 2,250 2,059 9,201 2,602 12,398 12,375 33,993 10,501 2,495 2,321 14,441 5,401 32,769 8,450 146,194 19,051 1,249 15,723 10,227 24,235 (D) 27,596 26,588 28,653 11,684 3,153 1,967 412 3,071 1,160 1,925 5,221 Luxemb. 163,167 6,305 2,684 1,734 1,033 30,383 80 120,320 467 Netherl. 442,926 33,026 17,120 8,099 (D) 49,629 (D) 306,257 (D) Spain 69,649 11,379 3,337 254 986 7,506 2,123 40,850 3,138 Sweden 43,391 3,286 736 749 (D) 15,618 546 19,862 (D) Switzer. 123,358 8,996 21,423 2,649 7,240 4,844 632 70,100 7,284 6,089 1,507 1,749 -42 2,703 65 20 -4 93 420,873 56,685 17,689 42,867 19,727 122,854 13,913 101,062 37,060 563,809 60,709 24,265 8,609 12,699 195,083 2,078 204,950 24,724 Brazil 45,500 20,357 980 2,210 3,096 9,286 616 6,287 444 Chile 12,613 2,238 968 127 1,394 3,978 129 617 2,104 Venez’ 17,332 3,951 263 81 (D) 3,057 206 7,610 (D) Mexico 95,618 21,821 2,361 2,758 (D) 15,736 460 16,865 (D) Bermuda 165,857 1,303 3,790 632 (D) 81,179 272 72,566 (D) Dom. Republic 960 599 137 (D) (D) 1 1 (*) 10 UK Car. 139,290 695 10,699 436 -16,963 (D) 98 (D) 1,716 Africa 36,640 2,856 1,157 128 1,899 1,814 372 8,664 1,375 Middle East 32,488 11,763 2,145 1,447 720 569 933 7,594 799 491,910 104,598 32,334 26,596 41,740 75,544 15,850 125,935 35,324 Austral. 88,549 12,743 3,856 13,100 2,285 11,275 3,762 13,875 7,310 China 45,695 21,428 3,219 223 (D) 1,895 773 1,556 (D) HK 51,505 3,742 6,858 833 3,694 11,535 2,931 19,552 2,360 Japan 79,235 17,380 9,036 5,609 1,144 28,032 2,806 5,911 9,316 Korea 27,673 9,165 1,812 448 (D) 3,625 332 (D) (D) All industries Manufacturing Wholesale trade Information Banking Finance Services 3,162,021 512,293 178,213 121,864 141,557 634,046 227,298 72,523 18,332 4,113 3,676 Europe 1,809,876 259,844 99,980 80,971 Belgium 65,054 20,058 6,234 France 75,040 29,207 Germany 110,784 Ireland All Canada Italy Turkey UK LAmerica Asia Congressional Research Service 3 U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues All industries Sing. Manufacturing Wholesale trade Information Banking Finance Services Holding companies Other 106,529 16,544 3,322 2,130 (D) 6,782 1,329 71,250 (D) Taiwan 16,604 3,816 2,018 310 (D) 7,141 295 102 (D) OPEC 69,299 9,879 1,909 146 (D) 4,206 828 29,774 (D) Source: Ibarra, Marilyn, and Jennifer Koncz, Direct Investment Positions for 2008: Country and Industry Detail. Survey of Current Business, July 20092009 (in billions of dollars) All industries All Manufacturing Wholesale trade Information Banking Finance Services Holding companies Other $3,508.1 $541.1 $199.0 $149.8 $114.0 $747.0 $77.5 $1,280.0 $228.7 259.8 65.0 21.9 6.4 5.0 43.0 5.7 58.2 35.7 Europe 1976.2 284.8 102.4 103.9 77.5 363.9 48.9 824.5 123.1 Belgium 69.8 26.1 5.7 -0.6 (D) 31.5 1.7 2.6 (D) France 85.8 28.1 5.6 2.5 4.5 6.1 2.8 25.8 10.2 Germany 116.8 31.8 10.6 4.0 1.7 17.3 6.4 36.7 8.4 Ireland 165.9 16.2 4.2 32.7 0.1 12.4 9.4 53.6 31.5 12.6 3.2 2.2 (D) 4.1 1.2 2.0 Luxemb. 174.1 8.3 0.0 6.0 (D) 37.6 0.1 115.2 Netherl. 471.6 30.7 19.8 12.7 (D) 50.4 5.7 331.6 (D) Spain 50.6 15.0 3.5 0.8 2.4 5.0 0.5 20.1 3.2 Sweden 27.4 3.4 0.7 (D) 10.6 0.6 9.7 (D) Switzer. 148.2 24.4 22.5 3.7 (D) 4.4 1.6 73.9 (D) 6.3 1.6 1.9 -0.0 (D) 0.1 0.0 0.0 (D) UK 471.4 53.4 14.6 36.7 17.4 173.5 16.7 114.3 39.4 LAmerica 679.0 69.8 32.9 10.3 -13.0 220.3 2.3 286.7 29.8 Brazil 56.7 25.6 2.1 3.6 3.9 11.2 0.7 6.3 0.3 Chile 22.6 2.7 0.8 0.1 1.5 3.8 0.3 0.8 Venez’ 14.5 4.5 (D) 0.5 0.3 6.5 (D) Mexico 97.9 24.4 3.0 3.0 1.9 15.9 0.4 32.4 11.6 Bermuda 245.7 1.8 6.4 0.8 (D) 98.1 0.3 133.3 7.1 Dom. Republic 1.0 (D) -25.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 UK Car. 141.5 0.6 0.6 (D) 70.8 0.1 76.7 2.1 Africa 44.8 3.6 1.3 0.2 2.2 2.4 0.4 7.8 1.9 Middle East 37.0 12.5 2.2 1.7 0.2 0.7 1.3 10.4 0.8 Canada Italy Turkey 0.6 (D) (D) (D) (D) (D) (D) 6.1 (D) (D) Asia 511.3 105.3 38.3 27.4 42.2 116.7 18.9 92.3 37.4 Austral. 106.4 15.4 5.2 14.5 2.4 23.9 4.5 12.6 9.1 China 49.4 22.6 2.9 0.5 10.8 1.8 0.6 3.9 2.6 HK 50.4 4.4 8.3 1.5 3.3 13.6 3.3 13.3 2.7 Japan 103.6 16.9 8.2 5.0 49.9 2.4 8.3 Korea 27.0 10.9 2.2 0.5 (D) 4.2 0.4 (D) (D) Singapore 76.9 10.1 5.7 1.2 3.7 7.8 3.1 42.1 2.4 Congressional Research Service (D) 3 (D) U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues Holding companies All industries Manufacturing Wholesale trade Information Taiwan 19.5 4.3 3.3 0.2 1.7 8.4 0.2 0.1 (D) OPEC 56.0 11.1 2.0 0.2 (D) 1.0 1.2 21.0 (D) Banking Finance Services Other Source: Ibarra, Marilyn, and Jennifer Koncz, Direct Investment Positions for 2009: Country and Industry Detail. Survey of Current Business, July 2010. p.32. Note: A (D) indicates that the data have been suppressed by the Department of Commerce to avoid disclosing the data of individual companies. Typically, U.S. firms have placed the largest share of their annual investments in developed countries, primarily in Western Europe, but this tendency has increased since the mid-1990s. In the last half of the 1990s, U.S. direct investment abroad experienced a dramatic shift from developing countries to the richest developed economies: the share of U.S. direct investment going to developing countries fell from 37% in 1996 to 21% in 2000. In 20082009, U.S. firms focused a slightly greatersmaller percent of their investment funds in Europe and Latin America, while scaling down the Asia, while increasing their share of their investment spending in all other areas Canada. Developed countries received nearly 70% of the investment funds of U.S. multinational firms, while developing countries received about 30%. Patterns in U.S. direct investment abroad generally reflect fundamental changes that occur in the U.S. economy during the same period. As investment funds in the U.S. economy shifted from extractive, processing, and manufacturing industries toward high technology services and financial industries, U.S. investment abroad mirrored these changes. As a result, U.S. direct investment abroad focused less on the extractive, processing, and basic manufacturing industries in developing countries and more on high technology, finance, and services industries located in highly-developed countries with advanced infrastructure and communications systems. The total amount of U.S. direct investment abroad, or the position, during the 2000-20082009 period more than doubledtripled, rising from $920 billion to $2.43.5 trillion. Investments in the banking, finance, and insurance sectors all fell in 2008, reflecting the financial crisis. Generally, service-oriented sectors continued to grow through 2008. Within the manufacturing sector, the direct investment position fell in most sectors in 2008, reflecting the economic recession that had started earlier in that year. U.S. Multinationals Nations once hostile to American direct investment now compete aggressively by offering incentives to U.S. firms. A debate continues within the United States, however, over the relative merits of U.S. direct investment abroad. Some Americans believe that U.S. direct investment abroad, directly or indirectly, shifts some jobs to low wage countries. They argue that such shifts reduce employment in the United States and increase imports, thereby affecting negatively both U.S. employment and economic growth. Economists generally believe that firms invest abroad because those firms possess some special process or product knowledge or because they possess special managerial abilities which give them an advantage over other firms. On the whole, U.S. firms invest abroad to serve the foreign local market, rather than to produce goods to export to the United States, although some firms do establish overseas operations to replace U.S. exports or Congressional Research Service 4 U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues production, or to gain access to raw materials, cheap labor, or other markets. On average, about 8% of affiliate sales are to the U.S. parent companies.5 U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs) rank among the largest U.S. firms. According to data collected by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), when American parent companies and their foreign affiliates are compared by the size structure of employment classes, 40% of the more than 2,000 U.S. parent companies employ more than 2,499 persons. These large parent firms account for 95% of the total number of people employed by U.S. MNCs. Employment abroad is even more concentrated among the largest foreign affiliates of U.S. parent firms: the largest 2% of the affiliates account for 90% of affiliate employment.6 While U.S. MNCs used their economic strengths to expand abroad between the 1980s and early 2000s, the U.S.-based parent firms lost market positions at home, in large part due to corporate downsizing efforts to improve profits. U.S. MNC parent companies’ share of all U.S. business gross domestic product (GDP)—the broadest measure of economic activity—declined from 32% to 25% from 1977 to 1989.7 In 2007 (the latest year for which estimates are available), U.S. parent companies accounted for about 21% of total U.S. business activity. These MNC parent companies accounted for about 41% of total U.S. manufacturing activity, down from 46% in 2000. As U.S. MNC parent companies were losing their relative market positions at home, their cumulative amount of direct investment abroad doubled. This increase did spur a shift in some economic activity among the U.S. MNCs from the U.S. parent companies to the foreign affiliates. During the period from 2000 to 2007, the foreign affiliates increased their share of the total economic activity within U.S. MNCs—the combined economic output of the U.S. parent and the foreign affiliates—from 22% to 30%.8 Employment One of the most commonly expressed concerns about U.S. direct investment abroad is that U.S. parent companies invest abroad in order to send low-wage jobs overseas. Such effects are difficult to measure because they are small compared with much larger changes occurring within the U.S. economy. In addition, a cursory examination of the data seems to indicate that employment losses among parent firms occurred simultaneously with gains in foreign subsidiaries, thereby giving the impression that jobs are being shifted abroad. Employment among U.S. parent companies fell during the early 1980s, but increased in the 1992-2000 period, from 17.5 million to 23.9 million. From 2000 to 2003, however, employment among U.S. parent companies fell by 12% to 21.1 million, before rising after 2003 to reach 22 million in 2007 as U.S. economic growth picked up. Employment among foreign affiliates also rose in 2007 by 4.0% to 10.0 million, from 9.6 million in 2006. 5 U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Operations of U.S. Parent Companies and Their Foreign Affiliates, Preliminary 2004 Estimates, October 2006. Table III. F. 1. 6 Mataloni, Raymond J. Jr. U.S. Multinational Companies: Operations in 1998. Survey of Current Business, July 2000. pp. 24-45. 7 Mataloni, Raymond J. Jr. U.S. Multinational Companies: Operations in 2003. Survey of Current Business, July 2005. p. 15. 8 Ibid., p. 31. Congressional Research Service 5 U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues After employment losses in the early 1980s, employment at both the parent firms and the foreign affiliates increased after 1992, although at different rates and in different industries. Both the U.S. parent companies and the foreign affiliates lost employment during the first part of the 2000s as the U.S. economy recovered from a period of slow growth. During such downturns, U.S. parent firms and their foreign affiliates often lose or gain employment in many of the same industries. Both the parent firms and the affiliates lost employment in the petroleum and finance sectors, although both gained employment in the services and wholesale trade sectors. Furthermore, employment gains and losses among MNCs more likely reflect fundamental shifts within the U.S. economy, than any formal or informal efforts to shift employment abroad. Some observers also contend that U.S. direct investment abroad supplants U.S. exports, thereby worsening the U.S. trade deficit and eliminating some U.S. jobs. Most analyses indicate, however, that intra-company trade, or trade between the U.S. parent company and its foreign subsidiaries, represents a large share of U.S. trade and that foreign investment typically boosts U.S. exports more than it contributes to a rise in imports or to a loss of exports. For instance, American multinational corporations account for over 60% of U.S. exports and 40% of U.S. imports, indicating that U.S. parent firms tend to be a more important source of supply to their affiliates than the affiliates are to their parent companies. Conclusions American direct investment abroad has grown sharply since the mid-1990s, raising questions for many observers about the effects of such investment on the U.S. economy. These questions seem pertinent since American multinational corporations lost shares of U.S. GDP over the last decade and their domestic employment had declined until the mid-1990s. Increased economic activity abroad relative to that in the United States increased overseas affiliate employment in some industries, including manufacturing. Most of this affiliate activity, however, is geared toward supplying the local markets in which they are located. In 2004, 9.5% of the sales of the foreign affiliates of U.S. firms was accounted for by exports back to the United States,9 although this share is nonetheless substantial. Some observers believe U.S. direct investment abroad is harmful to U.S. workers because it shifts jobs abroad. There is no conclusive evidence in the data collected to date to indicate that current investment trends are substantially different from those of previous periods or that jobs are moving offshore at a rate that is significantly different from previous periods.10 There are instances when firms shift activities abroad to take advantage of lower labor costs. However, it is clear from the data that the majority of U.S. direct investment abroad is in developed countries where wages, markets, industries, and consumers’ tastes are similar to those in the United States. U.S. direct investment in these developed countries is oriented toward serving the markets where the affiliates are located and they tend, in the aggregate, to boost exports from the United States. In addition, foreign firms have been pouring record amounts of money into the United States to acquire existing U.S. firms, to expand existing subsidiaries, or to establish “greenfield” or new investments. 9 Mataloni, Operations of U.S. Multinational Companies. p. 41. CRS Report RL32461, Outsourcing and Insourcing Jobs in the U.S. Economy: Evidence Based on Foreign Investment Data, by James K. Jackson. 10 Congressional Research Service 6 U.S. Direct Investment Abroad: Trends and Current Issues Author Contact Information James K. Jackson Specialist in International Trade and Finance jjackson@crs.loc.gov, 7-7751 Congressional Research Service 7