We investigate production offshoring – the relocation of production activities to locations abroad – of European firms. The analysis employs data from the European Manufacturing Survey (EMS). Offshoring activity is declining across most countries, sectors, and firm sizes between the periods...

We investigate the relationship between backshoring of production activities and investments in digital manufacturing technologies, also known as Industry 4.0. We argue that Industry 4.0 supports backshoring of manufacturing activities: First, because productivity increases by I4.0 technologies...