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Offshoring and Productivity: Evidence from Japanese Firm-level Data

Author

Listed:
  • ITO Banri
  • WAKASUGI Ryuhei
  • TOMIURA Eiichi

Abstract

It is noteworthy that multinational firms are beginning to offshore a wide range of operations. Theoretical studies have showed that offshoring contributes to a higher productivity. This paper aims to provide evidence of the effect of offshoring on productivity, on the basis of original 2006 survey data of offshore sourcing of Japanese firms. Our estimation shows that the offshoring of tasks for production of intermediates goods and final assembly, as well as the offshoring of tasks for R&D and information services, positively affects productivity growth, while the outsourcing of other service tasks has no significant impact on productivity. It also shows that firms outsourcing to the United States or Europe have realized high production efficiency, followed by firms outsourcing to Asia, in comparison with non-offshoring firms.

Suggested Citation

  • ITO Banri & WAKASUGI Ryuhei & TOMIURA Eiichi, 2008. "Offshoring and Productivity: Evidence from Japanese Firm-level Data," Discussion papers 08028, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
  • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:08028
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Ryuhei Wakasugi & Banri Ito & Eiichi Tomiura, 2010. "Productivity Premia of Offshoring Firms in East Asia: Evidence from Japanese Firms," Millennial Asia, , vol. 1(1), pages 76-96, January.
    2. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2015. "Service Trade and Productivity: Firm-level evidence from Japan," Discussion papers 15030, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    3. Magdolna Sass & Miklos Szanyi, 2012. "Two essays on Hungarian relocations," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1223, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    4. KWON Hyeog Ug, 2012. "Offshoring of Japanese Small and Medium Enterprises (Japanese)," Discussion Papers (Japanese) 12004, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    5. Joachim Wagner, 2011. "Offshoring and firm performance: self-selection, effects on performance, or both?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 147(2), pages 217-247, June.
    6. Martin Borowiecki & Bernhard Dachs & Doris Hanzl-Weiss & Steffen Kinkel & Johannes Pöschl & Magdolna Sass & Thomas Christian Schmall & Robert Stehrer & Andrea Szalavetz, 2012. "Global Value Chains and the EU Industry," wiiw Research Reports 383, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    7. Lin, Songhua & Ma, Alyson C., 2012. "Outsourcing and productivity: Evidence from Korean data," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 39-49.
    8. Magdolna Sass & Gábor Hunya, 2014. "Escaping to the East? Relocation of business activities to and from Hungary, 2003–2011," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1407, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.

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