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Global sourcing of a complex good

Author

Listed:
  • Johannes Van Biesebroeck
  • Lijun ZHANG

Abstract

We analyze a firm that produces a final good from multiple intermediates that can each be sourced domestically or from a low-wage country. The model explicitly incorporates that sourcing decisions of intermediates are interdependent. Equilibrium predictions depend crucially on a key modeling assumption - the nature of the trade friction that foreign production has to overcome. If production abroad involves a fixed cost, offshoring one intermediate unambiguously facilitates offshoring of other intermediates. However, if production abroad involves incomplete contracts, offshoring one intermediate almost always makes it more difficult to offshore others. We illustrate that the pattern in prices at which successive automotive parts are imported into the U.S. accords better with the predictions of the incomplete contracting model, except for a few countries with the best governance indicators.

Suggested Citation

  • Johannes Van Biesebroeck & Lijun ZHANG, 2011. "Global sourcing of a complex good," Working Papers of Department of Economics, Leuven ces11.26, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Department of Economics, Leuven.
    • Handle: RePEc:ete:ceswps:ces11.26
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    Citations

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    2. Schwarz, Christian & Suedekum, Jens, 2014. "Global sourcing of complex production processes," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 123-139.
    3. Verena Nowak & Christian Schwarz & Jens Suedekum, 2016. "Asymmetric spiders: Supplier heterogeneity and the organization of firms," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(2), pages 663-684, May.
    4. Pol Antràs, 2014. "Grossman–Hart (1986) Goes Global: Incomplete Contracts, Property Rights, and the International Organization of Production," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 30(suppl_1), pages 118-175.
    5. Yi-Fan Chen & Alireza Naghavi & Shin-Kun Peng, 2021. "Learning by supplying and competition threat," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 157(1), pages 121-148, February.
    6. Egger, Peter H. & Erhardt, Katharina & Masllorens, Gerard, 2023. "Backward versus forward integration of firms in global value chains," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    7. Van Biesebroeck, Johannes & Zhang, Lijun, 2014. "Interdependent product cycles for globally sourced intermediates," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 143-156.
    8. Travis Ng, 2025. "Contracting Institutions and R&D Collaboration Between Nonrivals in Competitive Industry Equilibrium," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 46(6), pages 3414-3427, September.
    9. Takeshi Yagihashi & David D. Selover, 2017. "How Do the Trans-Pacific Economies Affect the USA? An Industrial Sector Approach," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(10), pages 2097-2124, October.
    10. Nowak, Verena, 2014. "Organizational decisions in multistage production processes," DICE Discussion Papers 169, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation

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