IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/servic/v32y2011i4p551-569.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does services offshoring boost productivity? Some Canadian evidence on causation

Author

Listed:
  • C. Michael Wernerheim

Abstract

The quest to enhance productivity makes outsourcing not only an important corporate strategy, but a focus of public policy as well. Existing studies consider correlations between outsourcing and productivity. This paper attempts to examine causation. We use annual time series data for Canada on international outsourcing of services, and total factor productivity for the period 1961--2005 for three sectors: manufacturing; business services; and all other (non-business) services. The statistical results strongly suggest that services offshoring increases productivity growth for business services and manufacturing, with some remarkable differences in the direction of causality across sectors. This has implications for how trade liberalisation, for example, can be expected to affect the contribution of services to national productivity growth.

Suggested Citation

  • C. Michael Wernerheim, 2011. "Does services offshoring boost productivity? Some Canadian evidence on causation," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 551-569, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:servic:v:32:y:2011:i:4:p:551-569
    DOI: 10.1080/02642069.2011.613937
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02642069.2011.613937
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/02642069.2011.613937?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rodolfo Helg & Lucia Tajoli, 2002. "Patterns of International Fragmentation of Production and Implications for the Labor Markets," Working Papers 503, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    2. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119.
    3. Baldwin, John R. Gu, Wulong, 2009. "Productivity Performance in Canada, 1961 to 2008: An Update on Long-term Trends," The Canadian Productivity Review 2009025e, Statistics Canada, Economic Analysis Division.
    4. Catherine L. Mann, 2003. "Globalization of IT Services and White Collar Jobs: The Next Wave of Productivity Growth," Policy Briefs PB03-11, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    5. Baldwin, John R. Gu, Wulong, 2008. "Basic Trends in Outsourcing and Offshoring in Canada," Insights on the Canadian Economy 2008020e, Statistics Canada, Economic Analysis Division.
    6. Baldwin, John R. Gu, Wulong, 2008. "Outsourcing and Offshoring in Canada," Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series 2008055e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    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. Kevin J. Fox & Wulong Gu & Beiling Yan, 2017. "Productivity Growth and International Competitiveness," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 63, pages 113-133, February.
    2. Hillebrand, Eric & Schnabl, Gunther & Ulu, Yasemin, 2009. "Japanese foreign exchange intervention and the yen-to-dollar exchange rate: A simultaneous equations approach using realized volatility," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 490-505, July.
    3. B. James Deaton & Getu Hailu & Xiaoye Zhou, 2014. "Poverty in Canada: Does Manufacturing Matter?," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 362-376, June.
    4. Anikó Bíró, 2013. "Subjective mortality hazard shocks and the adjustment of consumption expenditures," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(4), pages 1379-1408, October.
    5. Zanini, Fabio C. & Irwin, Scott H. & Schnitkey, Gary D. & Sherrick, Bruce J., 2000. "Estimating Farm-Level Yield Distributions For Corn And Soybeans In Illinois," 2000 Annual meeting, July 30-August 2, Tampa, FL 21720, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Giuseppe Croce & Emanuela Ghignoni, 2011. "Overeducation and spatial flexibility in Italian local labour markets," Working Papers in Public Economics 145, Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Roma.
    7. Chasco, Coro & López, Ana María & Guillain, Rachel, 2008. "The non-stationary influence of geography on the spatial agglomeration of production in the EU," MPRA Paper 10737, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Davidson, Russell & Flachaire, Emmanuel, 2007. "Asymptotic and bootstrap inference for inequality and poverty measures," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(1), pages 141-166, November.
    9. Darrian Collins & Clem Tisdell, 2004. "Outbound Business Travel Depends on Business Returns: Australian Evidence," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(2), pages 192-207, June.
    10. Caginalp, Gunduz & DeSantis, Mark, 2017. "Does price efficiency increase with trading volume? Evidence of nonlinearity and power laws in ETFs," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 467(C), pages 436-452.
    11. Jongeneel, Roelof A. & Ge, Lan, 2005. "Explaining Growth in Dutch Agriculture: Prices, Public R&D, and Technological Change," 2005 International Congress, August 23-27, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark 24573, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Dong, Yingying, 2010. "Jumpy or Kinky? Regression Discontinuity without the Discontinuity," MPRA Paper 25461, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. PAUL CASHIN & C. JOHN McDERMOTT, 1998. "Are Australia's Current Account Deficits Excessive?," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 74(227), pages 346-361, December.
    14. Barnett, William A. & Serletis, Apostolos, 2008. "Consumer preferences and demand systems," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 147(2), pages 210-224, December.
    15. Hany Eldemerdash & Hugh Metcalf & Sara Maioli, 2014. "Twin deficits: new evidence from a developing (oil vs. non-oil) countries’ perspective," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 825-851, November.
    16. Rao, Surekha & Ghali, Moheb & Krieg, John, 2008. "On the J-test for nonnested hypotheses and Bayesian extension," MPRA Paper 14637, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Agnes Quisumbing & Neha Kumar, 2011. "Does social capital build women's assets? The long-term impacts of group-based and individual dissemination of agricultural technology in Bangladesh," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 3(2), pages 220-242.
    18. Glaser, Markus, 2003. "Online Broker Investors: Demographic Information, Investment Strategy, Portfolio Positions, and Trading Activity," Sonderforschungsbereich 504 Publications 03-18, Sonderforschungsbereich 504, Universität Mannheim;Sonderforschungsbereich 504, University of Mannheim.
    19. Delis, Manthos & Savva, Christos & Theodossiou, Panayiotis, 2020. "A Coronavirus Asset Pricing Model: The Role of Skewness," MPRA Paper 100877, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Giovanni Trovato & Marco Alfó, 2006. "Credit rationing and the financial structure of Italian small and medium enterprises," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 9, pages 167-184, May.

    More about this item

    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:taf:servic:v:32:y:2011:i:4:p:551-569. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FSIJ20 .

    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.