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Are U.S. White-Collar Really at Risk of Service Offshoring?

Author

Listed:
  • Rosario Crino

    (CESPRI-Bocconi University, Milano,Italy.)

Abstract

This paper deals with recent concerns about potentially negative effects of service offshoring on U.S. white-collar workers. At this purpose, the paper uses highly disaggregated occupational data and develops a Flexible and Separable Translog model in which service offshoring is allowed to affect labor demand for both minor white-collar occupations and major white-collar groups. The model is estimated through Quasi-Maximum Likelihood to account for the presence of corner solutions. Results suggest that concerns about service offshoring are ill-founded: service offshoring stimulates labor demand for the white-collar and changes its skill distribution in favor of high-skilled occupations.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosario Crino, 2006. "Are U.S. White-Collar Really at Risk of Service Offshoring?," KITeS Working Papers 183, KITeS, Centre for Knowledge, Internationalization and Technology Studies, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy, revised Oct 2006.
  • Handle: RePEc:cri:cespri:wp183
    as

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    File URL: ftp://ftp.unibocconi.it/pub/RePEc/cri/papers/WP183Crino.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Service Offshoring; White-Collar Workers; Labor Demand; Censored Demand System Estimation.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • C34 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Truncated and Censored Models; Switching Regression Models

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