Making sense of the data on Ireland’s inward FDI

Ireland, in employment terms, is the most FDI-intensive economy in the EU. International comparisons of trends and levels of FDI intensity are usually based on
balance-of-payments data however, and the international data series on Ireland’s
inward FDI tell hugely conflicting stories. Such series are published by the IMF,
UNCTAD, OECD and Eurostat (with data generally provided either by the CSO or
the IDA), while data on US FDI in Ireland are published by the US Bureau of
Economic Analysis. The present paper documents these conflicting stories and
searches for any underlying consistency through analysis of the items that the various databases include and exclude. FDI stock, flow and sectoral allocation data are
explored and trends contrasted with what is known from MNC employment data.