The Network of Global Corporate Control

The structure of the control network of transnational corporations affects global market competition and financial stability. So far, only small national samples were studied and there was no appropriate methodology to assess control globally. We present the first investigation of the architecture of the international ownership network, along with the computation of the control held by each global player. We find that transnational corporations form a giant bow-tie structure and that a large portion of control flows to a small tightly-knit core of financial institutions. This core can be seen as an economic “super-entity” that raises new important issues both for researchers and policy makers.

跨国公司控制网络的结构，对全球市场竞争格局与金融稳定性具有显著影响。截至目前，相关研究仅采用了少量国家级样本，且尚未存在适配全球层面控制权评估的成熟方法论。本研究首次针对国际所有权网络的架构展开系统性探究，并同步测算每一家全球市场主体所掌控的控制权规模。研究结果显示，跨国公司构成了巨型蝴蝶结拓扑结构，且绝大多数控制权汇聚至一个规模较小但联结极为紧密的金融机构核心群体。该核心群体可被视作一个经济层面的"超级实体"，这为学术研究者与政策制定者均带来了诸多全新的重要议题。