Branch plant economy

Branch plant economy is terminology used to describe national/local economies that host many branch plants (i.e. factories or firms near the base of a supply chain/command chain), but do not host headquarters. In particular, it was used in arguments that countries must develop independent companies, as a form of economic nationalism, to create better jobs and avoid having managerial positions filled only by corporate workers from outside the country.

It was used in the 1970s to describe Canadian reliance on US headquartered corporations or Scottish reliance on English-headquartered corporations but may have fallen out of mainstream use. Some opinion pieces still use the terminology to decry reliance on outside states, especially with regards to Canada’s relationship with the United States.