The economic effects of offshoring have been subject to extensive empirical analysis in the past, but many studies have not accurately distinguished between offshoring, domestic outsourcing, and the substitution of domestic by foreign suppliers. In this study I provide stylized facts on...

Recent pre-crisis growth accounting exercises attribute strong productivity growth toincreased investments in information and communication technologies (ICT), especiallyduring the mid-1990s. EU-wide stylized facts about a growing US-EU productivity gapare confirmed for Germany, particularly...

The authors empirically characterize the mechanics of trade adjustment during the Argentine crisis using detailed firm-level customs data covering the universe of import transactions made during 1996-2008. Their main findings are as follows: First, the extensive margin defined as the entry and...

The estimation of production functions suffers from an unresolved identification problem caused by flexible inputs, such as intermediate inputs. We develop an identification strategy for production functions based on a transformation of the firm's short-run first order condition that solves the...

In particular, the ability to export on time is crucial to explain comparative advantage in intermediate goods. These findings underscore the importance of investing in infrastructure and fostering trade facilitation to boost a country's participation in production networks. Furthermore, we...

The extant theory on price discrimination in input markets takes the structure of the intermediate industry as exogenously given. This paper endogenizes the structure of the intermediate industry and examines the effects of banning third-degree price discrimination on market structure and...

Formulating a model which summarises transportation costs, uncertainty and price, we describe how a switch to ICT procurement can impact more readily procured services rather than materials. Uncertainty represents a catch-all factor describing the dovetailing of operations between two neither...

This paper contributes to Hübler (2008) who analyses a partial equilibrium model of outsourcing with Cournot competition in intermediate good production. Final production is located in Western Europe, whereas the intermediate good can be manufactured by a Western (outsourcing) or Eastern...

The fear of massive job losses has prompted a fast-growing literature on offshoring and its impact on employment in advanced economies. This paper examines the situation for Belgium. It improves the offshoring intensity measure by computing a volume measure of the share of imported intermediates...

The analysis of the effects of firm-level international trade on wages has so far focused on the role of exports, which are also typically treated as a composite good. However, we show in this paper that firm-level imports can actually be a wage determinant as important as exports. Furthermore,...

This paper presents a tractable formalization and an empirical investigation of the quality-complementarity hypothesis, the hypothesis that input quality and plant productivity are complementary in generating output quality. We embed this complementarity in a general-equilibrium trade model with...

In recent years, two important related developments have transformed the nature of world trade: the explosive growth of Chinese trade, and the growth of vertically specialized trade due to international production fragmentation. The literature in each of these two separate topics is large and...

National income accounts view most business expenditures on intangible goods as acquisitions of intermediate inputs that get entirely used up in the production of final output. After arguing against this convention, I construct a data set to document firms' expenditures on an identifiable list...

We analyse the impact of relaxing rules of origin (ROOs) in a simple setting with heterogeneous firms that buy intermediate inputs from domestic and foreign sources. In particular, we consider the impact of switching from bilateral to diagonal cumulation when using preferences (instead of paying...

This paper develops an open economy model with heterogeneous final goods producers who simultaneously choose whether to export their goods and whether to use imported intermediates. The model highlights mechanisms whereby import policies affect aggregate productivity, resource allocation, and...

We study the relation between the off-shoring of intermediates and services and productivity growth in the Italian manufacturing industries in 1995-2003. Our results indicate that the off-shoring of intermediates within the same industry ("narrow off-shoring") is beneficial for productivity...

Der anhaltende Strukturwandel in der Landwirtschaft bedingt, dass die Unternehmen in den Vorleistungsindustrien der Landwirtschaft ihre Marketing- und Vertriebsstrategien überdenken und neu ausrichten müssen. Insofern rücken auch distributionspolitische Entscheidungen ins Blickfeld des...

This note provides sufficient conditions for immediate agreement in an extensive form model of interdependent bilateral bargaining. The model is suggested by Björnerstedt and Stennek (2006) as a work horse for studying bilateral oligopoly. The key feature of this model is that the firms are...

In this paper we derive a microfounded macro New Keynesian model for open economies, be them large or small. We consider habit formation in consumption, sectoral linkages for tradable and non-tradable goods, capital stock investments with variable capital utilization, domestic and foreign...

In some markets vertically integrated firms sell directly to final customers but also to independent downstream firms with whom they then compete on the downstream market. It is often argued that resellers intensify competition and benefit consumers, in particular when wholesale prices are...

The last decades were characterized by large increases in world trade, not only in absolute terms, but also in relation to world GDP. This was in large parts caused by increasing exchanges of parts and components between countries as a consequence of international fragmentation of production....

The paper analyses a partial equilibrium outsourcing model with Cournot competition in intermediate good production. Final production is located in western Europe, whereas the intermediate good can be manufactured by a western (outsourcing) or eastern European supplier (offshore outsourcing)....

We show that a monopolist final goods producer may find it profitable to create competition by licensing its technology if the input market is imperfectly competitive. With a centralized union, we show that licensing by a monopolist is profitable under both uniform and discriminatory wage...

This paper discusses the issue whether developing countries forego chances in world manufactured markets by protecting intermediate services against market entry of new suppliers. By scanning the empirical literature on effective rates of protection (ERP), the evidence is supportive. Yet, it...

Whereas many empirical studies show that the internationalization of production is driven by falling distance costs, theoretical models of the endogenous emergence of multinational enterprises predict the opposite. This paper argues that this dichotomy can be resolved if the production process...

This paper develops a theory of strategic vertical DFI (direct foreign investment) to suggest an explanation for the empirical puzzle of the missing `pollution-haven' effect. It focuses on a firm's strategic incentive to create multi-market interdependence (in addition to other conventional...

When a public good is excludable it is possible to charge individuals for using the good. We study the role of prices on excludable public goods within an extension of the Stern-Stiglitz version of the Mirrlees optimal income tax model. Our discussion includes both the case where the public good...

Dieser Beitrag soll einen Überblick und eine Systematik im Hinblick auf die aktuellen Beiträge zum Phänomen der Fragmentierung geben. Während man im Zusammenhang mit der Ausweitung des Nord-Süd-Handels von einer "horizontalen Globalisierung" spricht, gilt Fragmentierung als Ausdruck einer...

We consider two channels via which foreign inputs into industrial production may lead to productivity effects. The first one concerns dynamic externalities between firms which share technical and organizational knowledge which is vital for the productivity growth of a particular industry. We...

Trade in intermediate goods as one possible link between rising trade and foreign direct investment is examined. To explain growing intermediate goods trade, three hypotheses are brought forward: outsourcing, global sourcing and the increasing importance of MNE networks. These hypotheses are...

This paper examines the effects that purchased services and imported intermediate materials have on the labour demand for different skills in the manufacturing sector. We derive and estimate a factor demand system based on the generalised Box-Cox cost function nesting both the normalised...

This study deals with the determinants of factor demand in 27 industries of the manufacturing sector during the period 1978 to 1990. Using a quadratic cost function, six production factors are distinguished : capital, energy, three types of labour and intermediate materials. A parametric test of...

Die Betriebe des westdeutschen verarbeitenden Gewerbes (ohne Nahrungs- und Genußmittel) nutzten ihre Anlagen im März durchschnittlich zu 81,9 %. Damit war der Auslastungsgrad (saison- und witterungsbereinigt) erheblich niedriger als bei der vorherigen Befragung (84,0 %). Obwohl die...

Die Betriebe des westdeutschen verarbeitenden Gewerbes (ohne Nahrung- und Genußmittel) nutzten ihre Anlagen im Dezember 1995 zu 84,0 %. Damit war der Auslastungsgrad (saisonbereinigt) erneut niedriger als bei der vorhergehenden Befragung (September 1995). Die Reichweite der Auftragsbestände...

Nach den Ergebnissen des ifo Konjunkturtests nutzten die Betriebe des westdeutschen verarbeitenden Gewerbes (ohne Nahrungs- und Genußmittel) im März ihre Anlagen durchschnittlich zu 85,4% (saisonbereinigt; gemessen an der betriebsüblichen Vollauslastung). Dieser Wert lag erneut deutlich über...

Die in der EURO-INVEST-Prognosegruppe zusammengeschlossenen Forschungsinstitute aus sieben Ländern rechnen für die kommenden Jahre in den meisten EU-Ländern mit einem kräftigen Investitionswachstum. 1995 und 1996 wird die Industrie ihre Budgets stärker ausweiten als die anderen Sektoren....

Die Betriebe des westdeutschen verarbeitenden Gewerbes nutzten ihre Anlagen im Dezember 1994 durchschnittlich zu 84,6 %. Damit hat sich der Auslastungsgrad (saisonbereinigt) gegenüber der vorangegangenen Umfrage (September: 83,7 %) erneut erhöht. Im Vorproduktbereich von 85,1 % (September) auf...

Nach den Ergebnissen des ifo Konjunkturtests nutzten die Betriebe des westdeutschen verarbeitenen Gewerbes im Juni 1995 ihre Anlagen durchschnittlich zu 86,1% (saisonbedingt, gemessen an der betriebsüblichen Vollauslastung). Bei der vorangegangenen Befragung im März 1995 lag der Wert bei...