Devashish Mitra () (Department of Economics, Syracuse University, NBER and IZA) Priya Ranjan () (Department of Economics, University of California-Irvine)
Additional information is available for the following
registered author(s):
In this paper, in order to study the impact of offshoring on sectoral and economywide rates of unemployment, we construct a two sector general equilibrium model in which labor is mobile across the two sectors, and unemployment is caused by search frictions. We find that, contrary to general perception, wage increases and sectoral unemployment decreases due to offshoring. This result can be understood to arise from the productivity enhancing (cost reducing) effect of offshoring. If the search cost is identical in the two sectors, or even if the search cost is higher in the sector which experiences offshoring, the economywide rate of unemployment decreases. We also find multiple equilibrium outcomes in the extent of offshoring and therefore, in the unemployment rate. Furthermore, a firm can increase its domestic employment through offshoring. Also, such a firm's domestic employment can be higher than a firm that chooses to remain fully domestic. When we modify the model to disallow intersectoral labor mobility, the negative relative price effect on the sector in which firms offshore some of their activity becomes stronger. In such a case, it is possible for this effect to offset the positive productivity effect, and result in a rise in unemployment in that sector. In the other sector, offshoring has a much stronger unemployment reducing effect in the absence of intersectoral labor mobility than in the presence of it. Finally, allowing for an endogenous number of varieties provides an additional indirect channel, through which sectoral unemployment goes down due to the entry of new firms brought about by offshoring.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number
060719.
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Antràs, Pol & Helpman, Elhanan, 2004.
"Global Sourcing,"
CEPR Discussion Papers
4170, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Pol Antràs & Elhanan Helpman, 2003.
"Global Sourcing,"
NBER Working Papers
10082, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Grossman, G.M. & Helpman, E., 2002.
"Outsourcing in a Global Economy,"
Papers
218, Princeton, Woodrow Wilson School - Public and International Affairs.
Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 2002.
"Outsourcing in a Global Economy,"
Working Papers
149, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Discussion Papers in Economics..
[Downloadable!]
Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 2002.
"Outsourcing versus FDI in Industry Equilibrium,"
Working Papers
148, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Discussion Papers in Economics..
[Downloadable!]
Cited by: (explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)