IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tiu/tiucen/80b54bd0-a204-4d63-9629-151aca683c6d.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Outsourcing of Services and the Productivity Recovery in U.S. Manufacturing in the 1980s and 1990s

Author

Listed:
  • Ten Raa, T.

    (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research)

  • Wolff, E.N.

Abstract

Manufacturing productivity growth recovered during the 1980s and 1990s, while other sectors, particularly services, did not. In the same period U.S. manufacturing has engaged in the “outsourcing” or “contracting-out” of service functions. Has the recovery of manufacturing been accomplished by industrial reorganization--sloughing off sluggish services--rather than technical progress? We analyze this question by reducing service inputs to their consituent elements of material inputs. Service productivity growth is thus imputed to the goods sectors, reducing the recovery of manufacturing productivity growth in the 1980s by one fifth. The recovery lasted through the 1990s, when high productivity performers in manufacturing have been relatively successful at outsourcing sluggishservices. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2001
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Ten Raa, T. & Wolff, E.N., 2000. "Outsourcing of Services and the Productivity Recovery in U.S. Manufacturing in the 1980s and 1990s," Discussion Paper 2000-32, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:tiu:tiucen:80b54bd0-a204-4d63-9629-151aca683c6d
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://pure.uvt.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/535078/32.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Donald Siegel & Zvi Griliches, 1992. "Purchased Services, Outsourcing, Computers, and Productivity in Manufacturing," NBER Chapters, in: Output Measurement in the Service Sectors, pages 429-460, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Raa, Thijs ten & Wolff, Edward N., 1991. "Secondary products and the measurement of productivity growth," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 581-615, December.
    3. Harry H. Postner, 1990. "The Contracting‐Out Problem In Service Sector Analysis: Choice Of Statistical Unit," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 36(2), pages 177-186, June.
    4. repec:bla:revinw:v:36:y:1990:i:2:p:177-86 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Zvi Griliches, 1992. "Output Measurement in the Service Sectors," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gril92-1.
    6. George J. Stigler, 1951. "The Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 185-185.
    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. de Groot, H.L.F., 1998. "Macroeconomic Consequences of Outsourcing. An Analysis of Growth, Welfare and Product Variety," Other publications TiSEM fcbc1070-85e4-4b77-b138-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. Yukako Ono, 2000. "Outsourcing Business Service and the Scope of Local Markets," Working Papers 00-14, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Baldwin, John R. Gu, Wulong, 2008. "Outsourcing and Offshoring in Canada," Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series 2008055e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    4. Ten Raa, T. & Wolff, E.N., 1996. "Outsourcing of services and the productivity recovery in U.S. manufacturing in the 1980s," Other publications TiSEM 6c84d041-e198-4082-9ca5-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Ten Raa, M.H. & Wolff, E.N., 1994. "Outsourcing of services and productivity growth in goods industries," Discussion Paper 1994-59, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    6. Raquel Ortega‐Argilés & Mariacristina Piva & Marco Vivarelli, 2014. "The transatlantic productivity gap: Is R&D the main culprit?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(4), pages 1342-1371, November.
    7. Scott, Susan V. & Van Reenen, John & Zachariadis, Markos, 2017. "The long-term effect of digital innovation on bank performance: An empirical study of SWIFT adoption in financial services," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 984-1004.
    8. Francesco Venturini, 2005. "How Much Does IT Consumption Matter for Growth? Evidence from National Accounts," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 95(1), pages 57-110, January-F.
    9. John Haltiwanger, 2002. "Understanding aggregate growth: The need for microeconomic evidence," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 33-58.
    10. Frank R. Lichtenberg, 1993. "The Output Contributions of Computer Equipment and Personnel: A Firm- Level Analysis," NBER Working Papers 4540, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. K.J Joseph & Vinoj Abraham, 2007. "Information technology and productivity: Evidence from India's manufacturing sector," Centre for Development Studies, Trivendrum Working Papers 389, Centre for Development Studies, Trivendrum, India.
    12. Charlie Karlsson & Gunther Maier & Michaela Trippl & Iulia Siedschlag & Gavin Murphy, 2010. "ICT and Regional Economic Dynamics: A Literature Review," JRC Research Reports JRC59920, Joint Research Centre.
    13. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "The Search for R&D Spillovers," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 251-268, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. ten Raa, Thijs & Wolff, Edward N., 2000. "Engines of growth in the US economy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 473-489, December.
    15. Fred V. Carstensen & William F. Lott & Stan McMillen, 2003. "The Economic Impact of Connecticut's Information Technology Industry," CCEA Studies 2003-02, University of Connecticut, Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis.
    16. Agnese, Pablo, 2009. "Japan and her dealings with offshoring: An empirical analysis with aggregate data," MPRA Paper 16505, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Ohnemus, Jörg, 2009. "Productivity effects of business process outsourcing: a firm-level investigation based on panel data," ZEW Discussion Papers 09-088, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    18. Kiyoyasu Tanaka, 2009. "Producer Services and Manufacturing Productivity: Evidence from Japan Industrial Productivity Database," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd09-076, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    19. Kunsoo Han & Robert J. Kauffman & Barrie R. Nault, 2011. "Research Note ---Returns to Information Technology Outsourcing," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 22(4), pages 824-840, December.
    20. Khanna, Rupika & Sharma, Chandan, 2022. "Impact of information technology on firm performance: New evidence from Indian manufacturing," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Measurement of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity;

    JEL classification:

    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

    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:tiu:tiucen:80b54bd0-a204-4d63-9629-151aca683c6d. 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: Richard Broekman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://center.uvt.nl .

    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.