Session Leader: Andrew Allen, Office for National Statistics (ONS), United Kingdom

Collection of Business Statistics has been affected by globalization of large businesses for many years. Large Enterprise Groups organize themselves in many different countries, but not only for production reasons but also for administrative reasons, e.g. to optimize their profits or for a favorable tax-environment.   Several different business models have emerged, such as factory-less-producers and toll processors.   How are these businesses recorded on the statistical business register and is there a need to hold extra information on these or does the standard units model still work. What sources of data are used to derive multi-national structures?   We would welcome any contributions about country practices and special arrangements to manage large multi-national businesses.

A response to the challenges of globalization has been to set up large cases units, to not only get the unit structure correct (profiling type activity) but to also ensure more accurate and efficient data collection.   Large cases units can be involved in organizing the statistical units through to full scale data collection for the largest multi-national enterprise groups.  Their role therefore spans different parts of statistical offices, and requires additional skills, such as accountancy knowledge.  Contributions covering the design and function of LCU’s will provide a useful comparison of country practices.

An abstract of your paper should be submitted to the session leader (andrew.allen@ons.gov.uk) and to the organizers (WiesbadenGroup2023@cbs.nl) by June 1, 2023.