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Diasporas and Outsourcing: Evidence from oDesk and India

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  • Ejaz Ghani
  • William R. Kerr
  • Christopher T. Stanton

Abstract

This study examines the role of the Indian diaspora in the outsourcing of work to India. Our data are taken from oDesk, the world’s largest online platform for outsourced contracts, where India is the largest country in terms of contract volume. We use an ethnic name procedure to identify ethnic Indian users of oDesk in other countries around the world. We find very clear evidence that diaspora-based links matter on oDesk, with ethnic Indians in other countries 32% (9 percentage points) more likely to choose a worker in India. Yet, the size of the Indian diaspora on oDesk and the timing of its effects make clear that the Indian diaspora was not a very important factor in India becoming the leading country on oDesk for fulfilling work. In fact, multiple pieces of evidence suggest that diaspora use of oDesk increases with familiarity of the platform, rather than a scenario where diaspora connections serve to navigate uncertain environments. We further show that diaspora-based contracts mainly serve to lower costs for the company contacts outsourcing the work, as the workers in India are paid about the market wage for their work. These results and other observations lead to the conclusion that diaspora connections continue to be important even as online platforms provide many of the features that diaspora networks historically provided (e.g., information about potential workers, monitoring and reputation foundations).

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 18474.

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Date of creation: Oct 2012
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:18474

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  1. Ejaz Ghani & Homi Kharas, 2010. "The Service Revolution," World Bank Other Operational Studies 10187, The World Bank.
  2. William R. Kerr & William F. Lincoln, 2010. "The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and US Ethnic Invention," NBER Working Papers 15768, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  3. Hatzigeorgiou, Andreas & Lodefalk, Magnus, 2011. "Trade and Migration: Firm-Level Evidence (LONG VERSION)," Working Papers 2011:6, Örebro University, School of Business.
  4. Chris Forman & Anindya Ghose & Avi Goldfarb, 2009. "Competition Between Local and Electronic Markets: How the Benefit of Buying Online Depends on Where You Live," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(1), pages 47-57, January.
  5. Ramana Nanda & Tarun Khanna, 2007. "Diasporas and Domestic Entrepreneurs: Evidence from the Indian Software Industry," Harvard Business School Working Papers 08-003, Harvard Business School, revised Feb 2009.
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