Fariñas García, José CarlosMartín Marcos, AnaVelázquez Angona, Francisco Javier2023-06-152023-06-152018-020378-592010.1111/twec.12613https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/198This paper offers an empirical assessment of the multinational activity of European firms. It takes the predictions of models of firm heterogeneity and FDI activity as a reference to explore the characteristics of multinational firms from 30 European countries. We use an original dataset, based on ORBIS, which links information of parent-affiliate pairs of firms. Our results show that more productive firms have greater multinational activity in terms of both scope, the number of foreign markets where they invest, and scale, the volume of local sales by subsidiaries active in foreign markets. The estimation of gravity equations shows that country characteristics that encourage multinational activity successively induce the entry of less productive parent firms. We confirm this asymmetry for the following variables: GDPs of the home and host countries, distance, contiguity and having a common colonial history.)engjournal articlehttps:doi.org/10.1111/twec.12613restricted access658F23L25M16Foreign direct investmentMultinational corporationsProductivityFirm heterogeneityEconomía internacionalEmpresasFinanzas5310 Economía Internacional5311 Organización y Dirección de Empresas