Offshoring and skill-upgrading in French manufacturing

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Carluccio, Juan; Cunat, Alejandro; Fadinger, Harald; Fons-Rosen, Christian
• 署名单位: European Central Bank; Bank of France; University of Surrey; University of Vienna; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut; University of Mannheim; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; University of California System; University of California Merced
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2019.01.001
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 138-159
• 关键词: Offshoring; heterogeneous firms; Firm-level factor intensities; Skill upgrading Heckscher-Ohlin

摘要

Using French manufacturing firm-level data for the years 1996-2007, we uncover a novel set of stylized facts about offshoring behavior: (i) Low-productivity firms (non-importers) obtain most of their inputs domestically. (ii) Medium-productivity firms offshore skill-intensive inputs to skill-abundant countries and are more labor intensive in their domestic production than non-importers. (iii) Higher-productivity firms additionally offshore labor-intensive inputs to labor-abundant countries and are more skill intensive than non-importers. We develop a model in which heterogeneous firms, subject to fixed costs, can offshore intermediate inputs of different skill intensities to countries with different skill abundance. This leads to endogenous within-industry variation in domestic skill intensities. We provide econometric evidence supporting the factor-proportions channel through which reductions in offshoring costs to labor-abundant countries have significantly increased firm level skill intensities of French manufacturers. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.