This study examines performance gaps among foreign-owned and domestically- owned Austrian firms. In line with earlier findings our results suggest that the positive effects of participating in a foreign multinational?s network can mainly be found in productivity and profitability. A further...

We investigate the impact of international outsourcing on productivity using plant level data for Irish manufacturing. Specifically, we distinguish the effect of outsourcing of materials from services inputs. Moreover, we examine whether the impact on productivity is different for plants being...

In this paper, we incorporate offshoring of labor-intensive goods in a model with multi-product firms, and explore its implications in partial and general oligopolistic equilibrium. We identify important aspects of this phenomenon and argue that improvements in offshoring opportunities can...

We examine the determinants of the decision to relocate activities abroad for firms located in OECD countries. We argue that particular firm-specific features play a crucial role for the link between employment protection and relocation. Stricter employment protection laws over time in the...

This paper empirically investigates the pattern of globalizing corporate activities of Japanese manufacturing firms and its impact on their domestic operations and international trade, using 1998-2006 firm level data. More specifically, we compare changes in the domestic operations and...

The causality from outsourcing, defined as the procurement of inputs from outside the boundaries of the firm, to productivity is tested for a large panel of Irish manufacturing firms. Theory suggests that as firms outsource more 'non-core' activities to specialized providers, productivity due to...

Using a unique German firm-level data set, we provide empirical evidence for a productivity sorting along two dimensions: international activity and technology choice. We consider domestic and exporting firms and measure technology choice by firms' actual use of advanced information technology...

"Factoryless" manufacturers, as defined by the U.S. OMB, perform underlying entrepreneurial components of arranging the factors of production but outsource all of the actual transformation activities to other specialized units. This paper describes efforts to measure "factoryless" manufacturing...

Using firm-level data on offshoring of Korean manufacturers, the paper examines the relationship between firm heterogeneity and the probability of adopting offshoring. The results of the paper suggest that firm productivity may not be an important determinant for Korean firms' offshoring...