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Offshoring, tasks, and the skill-wage pattern

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  • Baumgarten, Daniel
  • Geishecker, Ingo
  • Görg, Holger

Abstract

The paper investigates the relationship between offshoring, wages, and the occupational task profile using rich individual-level panel data. Our main results suggest that, when only considering within-industry changes in offshoring, we identify a moderate wage reduction due to offshoring for low-skilled workers, though wage effects in relation to the task profile of occupations are not estimated with sufficient precision. However, when allowing for cross-industry effects of offshoring, i.e. allowing for labor mobility across industries, negative wage effects of offshoring are quite substantial and depend strongly on the task profile of workers' occupations. A higher degree of interactivity and, in particular, non-routine content effectively shields workers against the negative wage impact of offshoring.

Suggested Citation

  • Baumgarten, Daniel & Geishecker, Ingo & Görg, Holger, 2013. "Offshoring, tasks, and the skill-wage pattern," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 132-152.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:61:y:2013:i:c:p:132-152
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2013.03.007
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tasks; Offshoring; Outsourcing; Skills; Wages;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • F2 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs

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