Because of their numerous and large activities across different countries, Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) are believed to be central and dominant actors in the global economy. In addition, it has been argued that the growing fragmentation of production within global value chains (GVCs) in the past decades is largely driven by MNEs.

It is remarkable then that despite their acclaimed importance, empirical evidence on MNEs is not widely available and largely incomplete, with data only available for a subset of OECD economies. Based on the new OECD analytical AMNE database including information on MNEs across 43 industries and countries on a bilateral basis, this paper derives new insights on the importance of MNEs today. As the new database also allows the linking with the OECD TiVA database, the new evidence additionally discusses in detail the trade and investment nexus within GVCs and suggests that MNEs’ role in GVCs goes beyond trade and investment policy.