This paper reviews the implications of outsourcing and offshoring for the productivity of business services in the UK. Official statistics indicate that business-service productivity has grown by over 20 per cent in the last 7 years at the same time as employment grew by 20 per cent. The paper...

This Briefing Note considers recent trends in specialisation, outsourcing and offshoring of business services. Specialisation within a firm happens when a firm organises an activity in a specialised unit, for example, when a firm moves payroll activities out of the back office of a factory, and...

This paper provides a discussion of key issues which emerged from a review of the debate on offshoring and outsourcing. Although offshoring is not a new phenomenon, the current phase of offshoring is marked by the increased tradability of services enabled by ICT. The paper puts forward a clear...