Université de Lausanne
Ecole des HEC
Département d'économétrie et d'économie politique

Wednesday February 25, 2009, 17:00
Extranef, Dorigny, room 126

Karolina EKHOLM
(Stockholm University, Department of Economics, Sweden)

Offshoring and the Onshore Composition of Tasks and Skills
 
 
Abstract
Using plant data that distinguish between occupations, tasks, and workforce  skills, this paper investigates the relationship between offshoring and the onshore workforce
composition at German multinational enterprises (MNEs) in manufacturing and services. We find that the proportion of non-routine and interactive tasks increases with
offshoring, especially at services MNEs. Furthermore, we find that in excess of what is implied by changes in either the occupational or task composition, offshoring
predicts an increase in the wage-bill share of highly educated workers. While the relationships between offshoring and composition of tasks and skills are statistically
significant, the economic effect of offshoring is estimated to be small.

Web site of the seminar (with paper online): http://www.hec.unil.ch/deep/evenements-english/e-sem-all-2008 09.htm