Overseas assembly and country sourcing choices

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Swenson, DL
• 署名单位: National Bureau of Economic Research; University of California System; University of California Davis
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2004.07.005
• 发表日期: 2005
• 页码: 107-130
• 关键词: trade; Outsourcing; overseas assembly

摘要

This paper studies the cross-country pattern of U.S. overseas assembly activities between 1980 and 2000 to examine how outsourcing decisions are affected by changes in country and competitor costs. A number of interesting regularities emerge. When a country's costs rise, the share of U.S. overseas assembly activities in that location decline. Conversely, a country's share grows when competitor country costs increase. While own and competitor country costs affect overseas assembly in all countries, the magnitude of these effects is larger for developing countries. In many cases, the measured cost responses appear to correspond with outsourcing theories that are based on search and customization costs. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.