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Off-shoring, specialization and R&D

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  • Bournakis, Ioannis
  • Vecchi, Michela
  • Venturini, Francesco

Abstract

This paper investigates whether off-shoring promotes technological specialization by reallocating resources towards high-tech industries and/or stimulating within industry R&D. Using data for the US, Japan and Europe, our results show that material off-shoring promotes high-tech specialization through input reallocation between sectors, while service off-shoring favours technologically advanced production by increasing within-industry productivity, mainly via its positive impact on R&D. Conversely, we find that the increasing fragmentation of core production tasks, captured by narrow off-shoring, has adverse effects on technological specialisation, which suggests that this type of off-shoring is mainly pursued for cost-reduction motives.

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  • Bournakis, Ioannis & Vecchi, Michela & Venturini, Francesco, 2015. "Off-shoring, specialization and R&D," MPRA Paper 68382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:68382
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    High-tech specialization; off-shoring; productivity; R&D; OECD industries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F6 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization
    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

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