Measuring task content and offshorability

Trade economists increasingly relate the offshoring of service occupations to occupational task characteristics. This article provides empirical insights into this relationship and supports the importance of the task dimension as a determinant of offshoring patterns. The results further suggest that offshoring is a multidimensional phenomenon and it is advisable to use a comprehensive set of tasks in the empirical analysis to capture most of the relevant offshorability characteristics.