Robustness with Adaptation. Ownership Networks of Multinationals through COVID-19

We study how COVID-19 a ected the ownership co-location network of French multinationals over 2012-2022. Using INSEE's LiFi, we build annual country-industry co-location networks and assess robustness via topology (density, centralization, assortativity, clustering) and edge survival (Weighted Jaccard). We then test for post-shock shifts in the determinants of dyadic co-location with MRQAP. Three results emerge. First, the network's core is robust: topology shows no discontinuity and centrality persists. Second, adaptation is continuous at the margin: around one-third of edges rewire, concentrated in the periphery while core ties endure. Third, after 2020 the determinants of tie weights change, with a reduced role for gravity-like factors and greater cross-sector rebalancing. Thus the system is structurally robust with active peripheral adjustment. Rather than strict resilience in the sense of a return to the pre-COVID configuration, we observe durable strategic reweighting.