Are Multinationals Really Bigger Than Nations?
• Author(s): Paul De Grauwe & Filip Camerman
• Published: June 2003
• Pages in paper: 16
Abstract
Multinational corporations are increasingly seen as excessively big and powerful,
and as having dramatically increased in size and power. This perception has led
to the view that the big corporations are threatening democratic institutions of
the nation-states and that they pervert the cultural and social fabric of countries.
In this article the authors analyse the size of large corporations and the recent
trends in this size. Using value-added data (instead of sales) they find that
multinationals are surprisingly small compared to the GDP of many nation-states.
They find no evidence that the size of multinationals relative to the size of
nations has tended to increase during the last 20 years and argue that there is
little evidence that the economic and political power of multinationals has
increased in the last few decades.
Register for personal access to all papers for just £47.99
To download papers you need a subscription to World Economics Journal.
Get access to the full 20 year archive of thousands of papers and abstracts.
Order online now for 1 years immediate access for 1 user via username/password.
You do not need a PayPal account to pay by card.
Institutional Subscriptions, Contact Us
Existing Subscriber Log-in