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Outsourcing Potentials and International Tradability of Jobs - Evidence from German Micro-Level Data

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Abstract

We analyze the offshorability of jobs using the German Qualifications and Career Survey. The paper differentiates between outsourcing potential and international tradability and systematically uses a large set of potential determinants of organizational and spatial relocation derived from the existing literature on offshoring. Applying principal component analysis, we are able to compute two indicators explaining both the outsourcing potential and the international tradability of an individual employee according to the characteristics of the job performed. The results show that there is significant variation along the two dimensions across tasks, occupations, and industries. We apply our results to analyze the effects of outsourcing potential and international tradability on individual income and find that especially the latter has a negative effect. Moreover, our computed indicators can be used to further investigate the economic effects of offshoring potential.

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  • Tobias Brändle & Andreas Koch, 2013. "Outsourcing Potentials and International Tradability of Jobs - Evidence from German Micro-Level Data," IAW Discussion Papers 93, Institut für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung (IAW).
    • Handle: RePEc:iaw:iawdip:93
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    Cited by:

    1. Tobias Brändle & Andreas Koch, 2015. "Offshoreability and wages. Evidence from German task data," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(2), pages 189-216, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Outsourcing; International Trade; Offshoring; Trade in Tasks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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