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Productivity gains and spillovers from offshoring

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  • Klaus-Bernhard Michel
  • François Rycx

Abstract

Offshoring is generally believed to be productivity-enhancing and this belief is underpinned by economic theory. This article contributes to the growing literature that tests empirically whether offshoring does indeed help to improve productivity. Estimating the impact of materials and business services offshoring on productivity growth with industry-level data for Belgium over the period 1995-2004, we examine this issue separately for manufacturing and market services. The results show that there is no productivity effect of materials offshoring, while business services offshoring leads to productivity gains in manufacturing. In addition, this is the first article to investigate the possibility of spillovers from offshoring. Productivity gains from offshoring in one industry may feed through to other industries that purchase its output for intermediate use if, due to offshoring, the user value exceeds the price of the output. There is only scarce evidence of positive spillovers from materials offshoring in manufacturing in the data, which suggests that most firms effectively manage to internalise all efficiency gains from offshoring.

Suggested Citation

  • Klaus-Bernhard Michel & François Rycx, 2011. "Productivity gains and spillovers from offshoring," Working Papers CEB 11-018, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/88563
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ioannis Bournakis & Michela Vecchi & Francesco Venturini, 2018. "Off‐Shoring, Specialization and R&D," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 64(1), pages 26-51, March.
    3. Bruno Merlevede & Angelos Theodorakopoulos, 2018. "Productivity Effects Of Internationalisation Through The Domestic Supply Chain: Evidence From Europe," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 18/949, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    4. Wolszczak-Derlacz Joanna, 2018. "The Analysis of Firms’ Involvement in Internationalisation And Determinants of its Intensity – An Analysis For Developing and Post-Transition Economies," Economics and Business Review, Sciendo, vol. 4(1), pages 44-63, April.
    5. Mariotti, Sergio & Nicolini, Marcella & Piscitello, Lucia, 2013. "Vertical linkages between foreign MNEs in service sectors and local manufacturing firms," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 133-145.
    6. Bhushan Praveen Jangam & Badri Narayan Rath, 2021. "Does global value chain participation enhance domestic value‐added in exports? Evidence from emerging market economies," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(2), pages 1681-1694, April.
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    8. Victor Stolzenburg & Daria Taglioni & Deborah Winkler, 2019. "Economic upgrading through global value chain participation: which policies increase the value-added gains?," Chapters, in: Stefano Ponte & Gary Gereffi & Gale Raj-Reichert (ed.), Handbook on Global Value Chains, chapter 30, pages 483-505, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Deborah Winkler & Thomas Farole, 2015. "Global Value Chain Integration and Productivity," World Bank Publications - Reports 23818, The World Bank Group.
    10. Burnett, Perry & Cutler, Harvey, 2018. "The transitional impacts of material and service offshoring," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 136-150.
    11. Johannes Pöschl & Neil Foster-McGregor & Robert Stehrer, 2016. "International R&D Spillovers and Business Service Innovation," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(12), pages 2025-2045, December.
    12. Bruno Merlevede & Angelos Theodorakopoulos, 2021. "Productivity effects of internationalisation through the domestic supply chain," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(6), pages 808-832, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    offshoring; productivity; spillovers; manufacturing and services; gmm;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General

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