IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/iza/izawol/journl2022n499.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Offshoring and labor markets in developing countries

Author

Listed:
  • Arnab K. Basu

    (Cornell University, USA, and IZA, Germany)

  • Nancy H. Chau

    (Cornell University, USA, and IZA, Germany)

Abstract

Developing countries are often seen as unquestionable beneficiaries in the phenomenal rise of global value chains in international trade. Offshoring—the cross-border trade in intermediate goods and services which facilitate country-level specialization in subsets of production tasks—enables an early start in global trade integration even when the requisite technology and knowhow for cost-effective production from scratch to finish are not yet acquired. A growing economics literature suggests a more nuanced view, however. Policymakers should be mindful of issues related to inequality across firms and wages, labor standards, and effects of trade policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnab K. Basu & Nancy H. Chau, 2022. "Offshoring and labor markets in developing countries," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 499-499, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:2022:n:499
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://wol.iza.org/uploads/articles/499/pdfs/offshoring-and-labor-markets-in-developing-countries.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://wol.iza.org/articles/offshoring-and-labor-markets-in-developing-countries
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brian J. Aitken & Ann E. Harrison, 2022. "Do Domestic Firms Benefit from Direct Foreign Investment? Evidence from Venezuela," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Globalization, Firms, and Workers, chapter 6, pages 139-152, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Gene M. Grossman & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2008. "Trading Tasks: A Simple Theory of Offshoring," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1978-1997, December.
    3. Subhayu Bandyopadhyay & Arnab K. Basu & Nancy H. Chau & Devashish Mitra, 2020. "Consequences Of Offshoring To Developing Nations: Labor‐Market Outcomes, Welfare, And Corrective Interventions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(1), pages 209-224, January.
    4. Pol Antràs & Robert W. Staiger, 2012. "Offshoring and the Role of Trade Agreements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(7), pages 3140-3183, December.
    5. Kalyan K. Sanyal & Ronald W. Jones, 2018. "The Theory of Trade in Middle Products," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: International Trade Theory and Competitive Models Features, Values, and Criticisms, chapter 13, pages 203-231, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    6. World Bank, 2020. "World Development Report 2020," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 32437.
    7. Alan S. Blinder, 2009. "How Many US Jobs Might be Offshorable?," World Economics, World Economics, 1 Ivory Square, Plantation Wharf, London, United Kingdom, SW11 3UE, vol. 10(2), pages 41-78, April.
    8. Lorenzo Caliendo & Fernando Parro, 2015. "Estimates of the Trade and Welfare Effects of NAFTA," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(1), pages 1-44.
    9. Ernst, Christoph. & Sánchez-Ancochea, Diego., 2008. "Offshoring and employment in the developing world : the case of Costa Rica," ILO Working Papers 994130083402676, International Labour Organization.
    10. Cebreros Alfonso & Salcedo Alejandrina & Chiquiar Daniel & Heffner-Rodríguez Aldo, 2020. "Trade Policy Uncertainty and its Effect on Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Mexico," Working Papers 2020-14, Banco de México.
    11. repec:ilo:ilowps:413008 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nenci, Silvia & Fusacchia, Ilaria & Giunta, Anna & Montalbano, Pierluigi & Pietrobelli, Carlo, 2022. "Mapping global value chain participation and positioning in agriculture and food: stylised facts, empirical evidence and critical issues," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 11(2), July.
    2. Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2010. "Services Trade and Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 642-692, September.
    3. Fontagné, Lionel & Santoni, Gianluca, 2021. "GVCs and the endogenous geography of RTAs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    4. Pol Antràs, 2020. "De-Globalisation? Global Value Chains in the Post-COVID-19 Age," NBER Working Papers 28115, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Holmes, Peter & Lopez-Gonzalez, Javier, 2011. "The Nature and Evolution of Vertical Specialisation: What is the Role of Preferential Trade Agreements?," Papers 222, World Trade Institute.
    6. João Amador & Sónia Cabral, 2014. "Global Value Chains: Surveying Drivers, Measures and Impacts," Working Papers w201403, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    7. Pol Antràs & Davin Chor, 2021. "Global Value Chains," NBER Working Papers 28549, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Bosker, Maarten & Westbrock, Bastian, 2024. "The network origins of the gains from trade," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    9. Baldwin, Richard & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric, 2014. "Trade-in-goods and trade-in-tasks: An integrating framework," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 51-62.
    10. Hartmut Egger & Udo Kreickemeier & Jens Wrona, 2017. "Offshoring Domestic Jobs," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: International Trade and Labor Markets Welfare, Inequality and Unemployment, chapter 2, pages 27-70, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 2020. "When Tariffs Disturb Global Supply Chains," NBER Working Papers 27722, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Daniel CHIQUIAR & Martín TOBAL & Renato YSLAS, 2019. "Measuring and understanding trade in service tasks," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(1), pages 169-190, March.
    13. Riccardo Crescenzi & Simona Iammarino, 2017. "Global investments and regional development trajectories: the missing links," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(1), pages 97-115, January.
    14. Jonathan EATON & Samuel KORTUM & Francis KRAMARZ, 2016. "Firm-to-Firm Trade: Imports, exports, and the labor market," Discussion papers 16048, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    15. Artuc, Erhan & Bastos, Paulo & Rijkers, Bob, 2023. "Robots, tasks, and trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    16. Richard Baldwin & Javier Lopez-Gonzalez, 2015. "Supply-chain Trade: A Portrait of Global Patterns and Several Testable Hypotheses," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(11), pages 1682-1721, November.
    17. Yoshimichi Murakami & Nobuaki Hamaguchi, 2021. "Peripherality, income inequality, and economic development in Latin American countries," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(2), pages 133-148, April.
    18. Hayato Kato & Toshihiro Okubo, 2022. "The Resilience of FDI to Natural Disasters Through Industrial Linkages," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 82(1), pages 177-225, May.
    19. Marina Gamilovna Mazitova, 2018. "International Production Fragmentation: Approaches to Measuring," Spatial Economics=Prostranstvennaya Ekonomika, Economic Research Institute, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (Khabarovsk, Russia), issue 2, pages 154-169.
    20. Fries, Jan, 2014. "Age and skill bias of trade liberalisation? Heterogeneous employment effects of EU Eastern Enlargement," ZEW Discussion Papers 14-113, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    offshoring; globalization; labor markets in developing countries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F63 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Economic Development
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • F6 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:2022:n:499. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.