Reorganizing global supply-chains: Who, What, How, and Where

In an increasingly uncertain environment, firms are differently exposed to shocks and may or may not bear the costs of reorganizing their value chain by reshoring or offshoring. This paper is based on a survey of French firms on the decision to reorganize part of their value chain between January 2018 and December 2020, in order to study the prevalence and the modalities of such reorganizations. Such decision turn out to be rare, carried out by firms with a higher share of skilled workers, in manufacturing rather than in services, and dominated by multinational firms. Although high-skilled firms reorganize more, the reorganized business functions are less skillintensive and more intensive in routine tasks. Activities that are more intangibles-intensive are more likely to be reorganized within the firm. Finally, apart from reshoring in France, activities that are offshored are located close to France. India, which combines low average wages with a large pool of highly skilled labour, receives a disproportionate share of skill-intensive activities.