Service Offshoring and Productivity: Evidence from the United States

The practice of sourcing service inputs from overseas suppliers has been growing in response to new technologies that have made it possible to trade in some business and computing services that were previously considered non-tradable. This paper estimates the effects of offshoring on productivity in US manufacturing industries between 1992 and 2000. It finds that service offshoring has a significant positive effect on productivity in the US, accounting for around 10 percent of labor productivity growth during this period. Offshoring material inputs also has a positive effect on productivity, but the magnitude is smaller accounting for approximately 5 percent of productivity growth.

What's behind volatile import prices from China?

In a sharp departure from earlier trends, the price of U.S. imports from China rose 6 percent in the 2006-08 period. To explore the forces behind this surprising increase, the authors create a new import index that uses highly disaggregated data to track price developments in different product types. The index reveals that the largest price increases were concentrated in industrial supplies - goods that rely heavily on commodity inputs. The authors conclude that the surge in commodity prices through mid-2008 was the primary driver of the rising import prices from China.Price indexes ; Imports - Prices ; Commodity exchanges ; Petroleum industry and trade

Economic Geography and Wages

This paper estimates the agglomeration benefits that arise from vertical linkages between firms in the context of Indonesia. The analysis is based on international trade and economic geography theory developed by Krugman and Venables (1995). We identify the agglomeration benefits off the spatial variation in firm level nominal wages. Unusually detailed intermediate input data allow us to more accurately capture spatial input/output linkages than in previous studies. We take account of the location of input suppliers to estimate cost linkages; and the location of demand from final consumers and other firms to estimate demand linkages. The results show that the externalities that arise from demand and cost linkages are quantitatively important and highly localized. An understanding of the extent and strength of spatial linkages is crucial in shaping policies that seek to influence regional development.agglomeration, economic geography, vertical linkages.

Trade and Industrial Location with Heterogeneous Labor

We show in the framework of a new economic geography model that when labor is heterogenous and productivity depends on the quality of the match between job and worker, trade liberalization may lead to industrial agglomeration and inter-industry trade. The agglomeration force is the improvement in the quality of matches when firms recruit from a bigger pool of labor. The forces against agglomeration are the existence of trade costs and monopoly power in the labor market. We show that more heterogeneity in skills attracts both firms and workers to bigger markets and supports agglomeration at higher trade costs.agglomeration, matching, spatial mismatch, inter-regional trade

Trade costs and location of foreign firms in China

The authors examine the determinants of entry by foreign firms using information on 515 Chinese industries at the provincial level during 1998-2001. The analysis, rooted in the new economic geography, focuses on market and supplier access within and outside the province of entry, as well as production and trade costs. The results indicate that market and supplier access are the most important factors affecting foreign entry. Access to markets and suppliers in the province of entry matters more than access to the rest of China, which is consistent with market fragmentation due to underdeveloped transport infrastructure and informal trade barriers.TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Trade and Regional Integration,Access to Markets

Specialisation Patterns in Europe

The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether specialisation has increased in European Union countries, and to determine whether specialisation patterns are consistent with trade theories. I present evidence of increasing specialisation in European Union countries between 1968 and 1990. I identify which industries have increased in geographical concentration and show that the characteristics of these industries are consistent with what is predicted by trade theories. The industries with increasing geographical concentration are characterised by high scale economies and high proportions of intermediate goods in production, providing support for the new trade theories and the economic geography theories.

Exports and Financial Shocks

A striking feature of many financial crises is the collapse of exports relative to output. In the 2008 financial crisis, real world exports plunged 17 percent while GDP fell 5 percent. This paper examines whether the drying up of trade finance can help explain the large drops in exports relative to output. This paper is the first to establish a causal link between the health of banks providing trade finance and growth in a firm's exports relative to its domestic sales. We overcome measurement and endogeneity issues by using a unique data set, covering the Japanese financial crises of the 1990s, which enables us to match exporters with the main bank that provides them with trade finance. Our point estimates are economically and statistically significant, suggesting that trade finance accounts for about one-third of the decline in Japanese exports in the financial crises of the 1990s

Exports and Financial Shocks

A striking feature of many financial crises is the collapse of exports relative to output. In the 2008 financial crisis, real world exports plunged 17 percent while GDP fell 5 percent. This paper examines whether the drying up of trade finance can help explain the large drops in exports relative to output. Our paper is the first to establish a causal link between the health of banks providing trade finance and growth in a firm's exports relative to its domestic sales. We overcome measurement and endogeneity issues by using a unique data set, covering the Japanese financial crises of the 1990s, which enables us to match exporters with the main bank that provides them with trade finance. Our point estimates are economically and statistically significant, suggesting that trade finance accounts for about one-third of the decline in Japanese exports in the financial crises of the 1990s