Outsourcing, competitiveness and the labour market: losers and winners

This article aims at briefly surveying the evidence of outsourcing, considering its impact on the labour market in advanced economies. On the base of the process definition, a tentative assessment of the overall impact of trade with low wage economies is proposed and after that the article addresses...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Fontagné, Lionel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2009
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/52708
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/52708
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:F14
J23
L6
Offshoring
Outsourcing
Relocalization
Labour market
European Union.
Economía internacional
Trabajo
5310 Economía Internacional
Descripción
Sumario:This article aims at briefly surveying the evidence of outsourcing, considering its impact on the labour market in advanced economies. On the base of the process definition, a tentative assessment of the overall impact of trade with low wage economies is proposed and after that the article addresses two policy-related issues: through which channels does trade with low wage countries (according to a broad definition of outsourcing) impact the labour market? And what are ultimately the patterns of international specialisation after outsourcing has taken place? The three conclusions are that outsourcing is the clue to understand the observed changes in labour demand; that product upgrading, and reshaping of production processes on an extended European basis, has preserved European competitiveness; and that top range varieties produced at low cost thanks to outsourcing have been key to such competitiveness.