Quarterly Survey of U.S. Direct Investment Abroad (Form BE-577)

This survey collects information on the positions and transactions between a U.S. parent company and its foreign affiliates as well as the income earned on those investments. The survey is conducted on a sample of affiliates. In order to reduce the reporting burden, the sample does not include small affiliates. Instead, BEA imputes data for these affiliates by extrapolating forward their data from the most recent benchmark survey on the basis of the movement of the sample data.