IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cri/cespri/wp183.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Are U.S. White-Collar Really at Risk of Service Offshoring?

Author

Listed:
  • Rosario Crino

    (CESPRI-Bocconi University, Milano,Italy.)

Abstract

This paper deals with recent concerns about potentially negative effects of service offshoring on U.S. white-collar workers. At this purpose, the paper uses highly disaggregated occupational data and develops a Flexible and Separable Translog model in which service offshoring is allowed to affect labor demand for both minor white-collar occupations and major white-collar groups. The model is estimated through Quasi-Maximum Likelihood to account for the presence of corner solutions. Results suggest that concerns about service offshoring are ill-founded: service offshoring stimulates labor demand for the white-collar and changes its skill distribution in favor of high-skilled occupations.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosario Crino, 2006. "Are U.S. White-Collar Really at Risk of Service Offshoring?," KITeS Working Papers 183, KITeS, Centre for Knowledge, Internationalization and Technology Studies, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy, revised Oct 2006.
    • Handle: RePEc:cri:cespri:wp183
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: ftp:https://ftp.unibocconi.it/pub/RePEc/cri/papers/WP183Crino.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan S. Blinder, 2005. "Fear of Offshoring," Working Papers 83, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    2. Gene M. Grossman & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2006. "The rise of offshoring: it's not wine for cloth anymore," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 59-102.
    3. Wales, T. J. & Woodland, A. D., 1983. "Estimation of consumer demand systems with binding non-negativity constraints," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 263-285, April.
    4. Lewbel, Arthur, 1996. "Aggregation without Separability: A Generalized Composite Commodity Theorem," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 524-543, June.
    5. Robert C. Feenstra & Gordon H. Hanson, 1999. "The Impact of Outsourcing and High-Technology Capital on Wages: Estimates For the United States, 1979–1990," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 907-940.
    6. Feenstra, Robert C & Hanson, Gordon H, 1996. "Globalization, Outsourcing, and Wage Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 240-245, May.
    7. Pol Antràs & Luis Garicano & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2006. "Offshoring in a Knowledge Economy," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(1), pages 31-77.
    8. Gregory Mankiw, N. & Swagel, Phillip, 2006. "The politics and economics of offshore outsourcing," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(5), pages 1027-1056, July.
    9. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    10. Martin Neil Baily & Robert Z. Lawrence, 2004. "What Happened to the Great U.S. Job Machine? The Role of Trade and Electronic Offshoring," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 35(2), pages 211-284.
    11. Catherine J. Morrison Paul & Donald S. Siegel, 2001. "The Impacts of Technology, Trade and Outsourcing on Employment and Labor Composition," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 103(2), pages 241-264, June.
    12. Zvi Griliches, 1992. "Output Measurement in the Service Sectors," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number gril92-1.
    13. Deardorff, Alan V., 2005. "A trade theorist's take on skilled-labor outsourcing," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 259-271.
    14. Mary Amiti & Shang-Jin Wei, 2005. "Fear of service outsourcing: is it justified? [‘Location of vertically linked industries: agglomeration versus comparative advantage’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 20(42), pages 308-347.
    15. Raja Chakir & Alain Bousquet & Norbert Ladoux, 2004. "Modeling corner solutions with panel data: Application to the industrial energy demand in France," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 193-208, January.
    16. Ekholm, Karolina & Hakkala, Katariina, 2005. "The Effect of Offshoring on Labor Demand: Evidence from Sweden," Working Paper Series 654, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    17. Morrison, C. J. & Berndt, E. R., 1981. "Short-run labor productivity in a dynamic model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 339-365, August.
    18. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/f0uohitsgqh8dhk9820172631 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Martin Falk & Bertrand M. Koebel, 2002. "Outsourcing, Imports and Labour Demand," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 104(4), pages 567-586, December.
    20. Moschini, Giancarlo, 1992. "A Non-nested Test of Separability for Flexible Functional Forms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(2), pages 365-369, May.
    21. Jagdish Bhagwati & Arvind Panagariya, 2004. "The Muddles over Outsourcing," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 93-114, Fall.
    22. Richard Blundell & Jean-Marc Robin, 2000. "Latent Separability: Grouping Goods without Weak Separability," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(1), pages 53-84, January.
    23. Chamberlain, Gary, 1982. "Multivariate regression models for panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 5-46, January.
    24. Gene M. Grossman & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2008. "Trading Tasks: A Simple Theory of Offshoring," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1978-1997, December.
    25. Martin Falk & Bertrand Koebel, 2001. "A dynamic heterogeneous labour demand model for German manufacturing," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 339-348.
    26. Woodland, Alan D., 1978. "On testing weak separability," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 383-398, December.
    27. Diansheng Dong & Brian W. Gould & Harry M. Kaiser, 2004. "Food Demand in Mexico: An Application of the Amemiya-Tobin Approach to the Estimation of a Censored Food System," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 86(4), pages 1094-1107.
    28. Mary Amiti & Shang-Jin Wei, 2005. "Service Offshoring, Productivity, and Employment: Evidence from the United States," IMF Working Papers 2005/238, International Monetary Fund.
    29. Almas Heshmati, 2003. "Productivity Growth, Efficiency and Outsourcing in Manufacturing and Service Industries," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 79-112, February.
    30. repec:bla:scandj:v:104:y:2002:i:4:p:567-86 is not listed on IDEAS
    31. Koebel, Bertrand, 2006. "Exports and Labor Demand: Searching for Functional Structure in Multi-Output Multi-Skill Technologies," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 24, pages 91-103, January.
    32. Bertrand Koebel, 2006. "Exports and Labor Demand," Post-Print hal-00279182, HAL.
    33. Bertrand M. Koebel, 2002. "Can Aggregation Across Goods be Achieved by Neglecting The Problem? Property Inheritance and Aggregation Bias," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 43(1), pages 223-255, February.
    34. Eli Berman & John Bound & Zvi Griliches, 1994. "Changes in the Demand for Skilled Labor within U. S. Manufacturing: Evidence from the Annual Survey of Manufactures," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 367-397.
    35. Berndt, Ernst R & Christensen, Laurits R, 1974. "Testing for the Existence of a Consistent Aggregate Index of Labor Inputs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(3), pages 391-404, June.
    36. Garicano, Luis & Hubbard, Thomas N, 2007. "Managerial Leverage Is Limited by the Extent of the Market: Hierarchies, Specialization, and the Utilization of Lawyers' Human Capital," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(1), pages 1-43, February.
    37. Edgerton, David L., 1993. "On The Estimation Of Separable Demand Models," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 18(2), pages 1-6, December.
    38. repec:pri:cepsud:119blinder is not listed on IDEAS
    39. Lori G. Kletzer & Robert E. Litan, 2001. "A Prescription to Relieve Worker Anxiety," Policy Briefs PB01-02, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    40. Alan S. Blinder, 2005. "Fear of Offshoring," Working Papers 83, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    41. Mundlak, Yair, 1978. "On the Pooling of Time Series and Cross Section Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 69-85, January.
    42. Meenakshi Rishi & Sweta C. Saxena, 2005. "Is Outsourcing Really As Bad As It Is Made To Sound? A Re- Assessment And Some Perspective," Macroeconomics 0508009, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    43. Catherine L. Mann, 2003. "Globalization of IT Services and White Collar Jobs: The Next Wave of Productivity Growth," Policy Briefs PB03-11, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    44. Blackorby, Charles & Primont, Daniel & Russell, R. Robert, 1977. "On testing separability restrictions with flexible functional forms," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 195-209, March.
    45. Vella, Francis & Verbeek, Marno, 1999. "Two-step estimation of panel data models with censored endogenous variables and selection bias," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 239-263, June.
    46. David E. Sahn, 2005. "Consistent Estimation of Censored Demand Systems Using Panel Data," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(3), pages 660-672.
    47. Morrison, Catherine J, 1988. "Quasi-Fixed Inputs in U.S. and Japanese Manufacturing: A Generalized Leontief Restricted Cost Function Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(2), pages 275-287, May.
    48. Diewert, W. E. & Wales, T. J., 1995. "Flexible functional forms and tests of homogeneous separability," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 259-302, June.
    49. Geanakoplos, John & Milgrom, Paul, 1991. "A theory of hierarchies based on limited managerial attention," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 205-225, September.
    50. Jakubson, George, 1988. "The Sensitivity of Labor-Supply Parameter Estimates to Unobserved Individual Effects: Fixed- and Random-Effects Estimates in a Nonlinear Model Using Panel Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(3), pages 302-329, July.
    51. Pavcnik, Nina, 2003. "What explains skill upgrading in less developed countries?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 311-328, August.
    52. Mary Amiti & Shang-Jin Wei, 2006. "Service Offshoring and Productivity: Evidence from the United States," NBER Working Papers 11926, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    53. repec:bla:scandj:v:103:y:2001:i:2:p:241-64 is not listed on IDEAS
    54. repec:bla:revinw:v:47:y:2001:i:4:p:451-72 is not listed on IDEAS
    55. Alan D. Woodland, 1993. "A Micro-Econometric Analysis of the Industrial Demand for Energy in NSW," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 2), pages 57-90.
    56. Denny, Michael & Fuss, Melvyn A, 1977. "The Use of Approximation Analysis to Test for Separability and the Existence of Consistent Aggregates," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 404-418, June.
    57. Fuss, Melvyn A., 1977. "The demand for energy in Canadian manufacturing : An example of the estimation of production structures with many inputs," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 89-116, January.
    58. LaFrance, Jeffrey T., 1991. "When Is Expenditure "Exogenous" In Separable Demand Models?," Western Journal of Agricultural Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rosario Crinò, 2010. "Service Offshoring and White-Collar Employment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(2), pages 595-632.
    2. Rosario Crinò, 2009. "Offshoring, Multinationals And Labour Market: A Review Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(2), pages 197-249, April.
    3. Rosario Crinò, 2012. "Service Offshoring and the Skill Composition of Labour Demand," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 74(1), pages 20-57, February.
    4. Luisa Gagliardi & Simona Iammarino & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2015. "Offshoring and the Geography of Jobs in Great Britain," SERC Discussion Papers sercd0185, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    5. Lichter, Andreas & Peichl, Andreas & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2015. "The own-wage elasticity of labor demand: A meta-regression analysis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 94-119.
    6. Runjuan Liu & Daniel Trefler, 2008. "Much Ado About Nothing: American Jobs and the Rise of Service Outsourcing to China and India," NBER Working Papers 14061, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Linda Andersson & Patrik Karpaty & Selen Savsin, 2017. "Labour Demand, Offshoring and Inshoring: Evidence from Swedish Firm-level Data," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 240-274, February.
    8. Bernhard Michel & François Rycx, 2012. "Does offshoring of materials and business services affect employment? Evidence from a small open economy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(2), pages 229-251, January.
    9. David Hummels & Jakob R. Munch & Chong Xiang, 2018. "Offshoring and Labor Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(3), pages 981-1028, September.
    10. Baldwin, John R. Gu, Wulong, 2008. "Outsourcing and Offshoring in Canada," Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series 2008055e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    11. Martin Tobal, 2019. "A model of wage and employment effects of service offshoring," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(1), pages 303-338, February.
    12. Wilhelm Kohler & Jens Wrona, 2010. "Offshoring Tasks, yet Creating Jobs?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3019, CESifo.
    13. Elisa Borghi & Rosario Crinò, 2013. "Service offshoring and wages: worker-level evidence from Italy," LIUC Papers in Economics 264, Cattaneo University (LIUC).
    14. Agnese, Pablo, 2009. "Japan and her dealings with offshoring: An empirical analysis with aggregate data," MPRA Paper 16505, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Linda Andersson & Patrik Karpaty & Selen Savsin, 2016. "Firm-level effects of offshoring of materials and services on relative labor demand," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 152(2), pages 321-350, May.
    16. Robert Grzanka, 2007. "Umiędzynarodowienie sektora usług," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 7-8, pages 43-63.
    17. Francesco Bogliacino & Dario Guarascio & Valeria Cirillo, 2018. "The dynamics of profits and wages: technology, offshoring and demand," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(8), pages 778-808, September.
    18. Sunil Mithas & Jonathan Whitaker, 2007. "Is the World Flat or Spiky? Information Intensity, Skills, and Global Service Disaggregation," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 18(3), pages 237-259, September.
    19. Daniel CHIQUIAR & Martín TOBAL & Renato YSLAS, 2019. "Measuring and understanding trade in service tasks," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(1), pages 169-190, March.
    20. Bart Hertveldt & Bernhard Michel, 2013. "Offshoring and the Skill Structure of Labour Demand in Belgium," De Economist, Springer, vol. 161(4), pages 399-420, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Service Offshoring; White-Collar Workers; Labor Demand; Censored Demand System Estimation.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • C34 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Truncated and Censored Models; Switching Regression Models

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cri:cespri:wp183. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Valerio Sterzi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.kites.unibocconi.it/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.