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Offshoring, Total Factor Productivity and Skill-Biased Technological Change

Author

Listed:
  • Akhmetova, Zhanar

    (Department of Economics)

  • Ferguson, Shon

    (Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN))

Abstract

The paper answers two questions simultaneously. What is the effect of offshoring on firms' total factor productivity? What is the effect of offshoring on skill-biased technological change? We estimate a model of firm production that allows for the effect of offshoring on both total factor productivity and relative skilled labor productivity, and for spillovers between the two. The model is fitted to Swedish firm-level data between 2001–2011. We find positive effects of offshoring intensity on total factor productivity, particularly of small domestic firms and large foreign-owned firms, and on skill-biased technological change in production of firms with low offshoring intensity. Initiating offshoring results in skill-biased technological change in non-production activities of large domestic firms. We show that evaluating the impact of offshoring in a unified framework has implications for the estimation results.

Suggested Citation

  • Akhmetova, Zhanar & Ferguson, Shon, 2015. "Offshoring, Total Factor Productivity and Skill-Biased Technological Change," Working Paper Series 1074, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1074
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    Cited by:

    1. Baum, Christopher F & Lööf, Hans & Perez, Luis & Stephan, Andreas, 2018. "Offshoring and Innovation Capabilities: Evidence from Swedish Manufacturing," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 469, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Offshoring; Total factor productivity; Skill-biased technological change; Relative skilled labor demand;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions

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