International Centre for the Study of East Asian Development

This paper uses micro data and published compilations of micro data to estimate shares of multinational corporations (MNCs) in Southeast Asian manufacturing. It first shows that MNC shares tended to be largest in Singapore, intermediate in Malaysia and (recently) in Vietnam, and lowest in Thailand and Indonesia. Shares tended to decline in Singapore and Thailand, were relatively constant in Malaysia, and increased in Indonesia and Vietnam. Shares of majority foreign MNCs also increased conspicuously in Indonesia and Thailand as MNCs bought out local partners in joint ventures after the Asian crisis. Second, it highlights how MNC shares were always lowest in terms of the number of plants or establishments, or in other words, how MNCs tended to be larger on average than local firms or plants. MNCs also tended to account for larger shares of production than employment, and even larger shares of exports. Hence MNCs tended to have relatively high labor productivity and export propensities. Because these simple comparisons do not account for other influences on productivity, wages, or exporting, for example, the paper also describes how micro-data have been used to analyze productivity, wages, and export propensities. This literature suggests tha