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Overseas Assembly and Country Sourcing Choices

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Author Info
Deborah L. Swenson

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Abstract

This paper studies the cross-country pattern of U.S. overseas assembly activities between 1980 and 2000 to examine how outsourcing decisions are affected by changes in country and competitor costs. A number of interesting regularities emerge. When a country's costs rise, the share of U.S. overseas assembly activities in that location decline. Conversely, a country's share of U.S. overseas assembly activities grows when competitor country costs increase. While own and competitor country costs affect overseas assembly in all countries, the magnitude of these effects is larger for developing countries than it is for developed countries. In many cases, the measured responses to cost changes appear to correspond with outsourcing theories that are based on search and customization costs.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10697.

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Date of creation: Aug 2004
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10697

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F1 - International Economics - - Trade

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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.:
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  2. Robert C. Feenstra & Gordon H. Hanson & Deborah L. Swenson, . "Offshore Assembly From The United States: Production Characteristics Of The 9802 Program," Department of Economics 98-10, California Davis - Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
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  15. Mendez, JoseA., 1993. "The welfare effects of repealing the U.S. Offshore Assembly Provision," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 1-22, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  21. Swenson, Deborah L, 2000. "Firm Outsourcing Decisions: Evidence from U.S. Foreign Trade Zones," Economic Inquiry, Oxford University Press, vol. 38(2), pages 175-89, April.
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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.)

  1. Mine Zeynep Senses, 2006. "The Effects of Outsourcing on the Elasticity of Labor Demand," Working Papers 06-07, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau. [Downloadable!]
  2. Deborah Swenson, 2005. "Outsourcing Price Decisions: Evidence from U.S. 9802 Imports," NBER Working Papers 11184, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Marcella Nicolini, 2007. "Institutions and Offshoring Decision," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
  4. Rosa Forte & António Brandão, 2008. "Effects of Adverse Selection on a Multinational Firm’s Decision on where to Subcontract," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 8(2), pages 133-146, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Amit Ghosh, 2009. "Implications of production sharing on exchange rate pass-through," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(4), pages 334-345. [Downloadable!]
  6. Witada Anukoonwattaka, 2007. "Outsourcing and International Production of a Multinational: A Theoretical Model and Empirical Evidence from Toyota, Thailand," DEGIT Conference Papers c012_045, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade. [Downloadable!]
  7. Amador, João & Cabral, Sónia, 2008. "Vertical specialization across the world: a relative measure," MPRA Paper 9618, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  8. Yushi Yoshida, 2005. "Outsourcing of Intermediate Manufacturing Products in Asian Economies," Discussion Papers 21, Kyushu Sangyo University, Faculty of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  9. Swenson, Deborah, 2001. "Competition and the Location of Overseas Assembly," Working Papers 06-38, University of California at Davis, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  10. Amador, João & Cabral, Sónia, 2008. "International fragmentation of production in the Portuguese economy: What do different measures tell us?," MPRA Paper 9783, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  11. Emek Basker & Pham Hoang Van, 2005. "Putting a Smiley Face on the Dragon: Wal-Mart as Catalyst to U.S.-China Trade," Working Papers 0506, Department of Economics, University of Missouri, revised 07 Oct 2005. [Downloadable!]
  12. Ekholm, Karolina & Moxnes, Andreas & Ulltveit-Moe, Karen-Helene, 2008. "Manufacturing restructuring and the role of Real exchange rate shocks: A firm level analysis," CEPR Discussion Papers 6904, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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