We Can Work It Out - The Globalisation of ICT-enabled Services

This paper examines the relationship between the share of employment potentially affected by offshoring and economic and structural factors, including trade in business services and foreign direct investment (FDI), using simple descriptive regressions for a panel of OECD economies between 1996 and 2003. It tests whether there are differences in the factors driving the shares of potentially offshorable "non-clerical" and clerical occupations in total employment. The results show a positive statistical association between the share of both "non-clerical" and clerical occupations potentially affected by offshoring and exports of business services, and a negative association with imports of business services. However, the results also show important differences between different types of occupations as they behave differently over time, and are affected differently by variables included in the model. In particular, net outward manufacturing FDI, ICT investment, and the relative size of the services sector all have a positive association with the share of potentially offshorable "non-clerical" occupations, but are negative with clerical occupations. Union density has a positive statistical association with clerical occupations but negative with "non-clerical" occupations. These results have important implications for policy, as they clearly suggest that different factors are driving the performance of different occupational groups.

Foreign direct investment and exports of services

The paper augments a standard export demand function in order to examine the impact of outward foreign direct investment (FDI) on United States export performance in services. It uses several panel data estimators: mean group, pseudo pooled mean group, and one-way and two-way fixed effects. It finds that the results are very sensitive to the exact empirical specification. While FDI is found to have a negative effect overall, for given levels of world demand and relative prices, this hides the presence of heterogeneity among different categories of services. Allowing for heterogeneity, it is possible to identify some arms-length categories of services in which exports are reduced as a result of higher levels of outward investment. In contrast, other types of service exports, notably receipts of royalties and affiliated services, are raised as a result of FDI

In search of 'Offshoring': evidence from U.S. imports of services

This paper explores the relationship between imports of services by the United States and the international sourcing of services production activities using a number of different panel data estimators for a number of different categories of services. A conventional import demand relationship is augmented by measures of the activity of foreign-owned affiliates in the US and US-owned service sector affiliates in other countries. There is a clear effect from production relocation on US imports of services. Outward investment in US-owned service sector affiliates is found to have a positive impact on import volumes. This is consistent with what might be expected if one motivation for such investments is to internationally source activities previously undertaken within the United States. Inward investment in the US service sector is found to reduce imports of services, other things being equal, pointing to substitution of trade and investment in services. However, inward investment in non-service sectors is found to stimulate imports of services, indicating complementarity at the aggregate level

International trade in services: issues and concepts

This paper analyses how tradable services have been treated, both in statistical work and in the academic economic literature. It is obvious that improvements still need to be made to the harmonisation of statistical definitions, as well on the data collection itself. However, the literature has not established any objections, either formal or empirical, to taking long-standing theories of trade in goods and applying them to trade in services, provided the particularities of services, as well as the shortcomings of the data, are taken into account

Hypothyreoidie na subtotale strumectomie

Het onderwerp hypothyreoïdie na strumectomie verschijnt in de medische literatuur voor het eerst in het jaar 1883. In dat jaar name] ijk publiceerden T. Kocher en ook J.L. Reverdin en A. Reverdin een verslag over de gevolgen van strumectomie. Eveneens wordt in het rapport van de Clinical Society van Londen uit 1888 de aandacht gevestigd op het verband tussen strumectomie en hypothyreoïdie. Dit verband heeft in deze eeuw veel onderzoekers beziggehouden. Na het stadium van beschrijving van het voorkomen van hypothyreoïdie na operatie werd in de loop der jaren tevens de histologie van het operatiepreparaat in het onderzoek betrokken, en nog weer later eveneens, al of niet in relatie tot de histologie van de schildklier, het pre-en postoperatieve onderzoek van anti] ichamen tegen schildklierbestanddelen

In Search of ‘Offshoring’: Evidence from U.S. Imports of Services

This paper explores the relationship between imports of services by the United States and the international sourcing of services production activities using a number of different panel data estimators for a number of different categories of services. A conventional import demand relationship is augmented by measures of the activity of foreign-owned affiliates in the US and USowned service sector affiliates in other countries. There is a clear effect from production relocation on US imports of services. Outward investment in US-owned service sector affiliates is found to have a positive impact on import volumes. This is consistent with what might be expected if one motivation for such investments is to internationally source activities previously undertaken within the United States. Inward investment in the US service sector is found to reduce imports of services, other things being equal, pointing to substitution of trade and investment in services. However, inward investment in non-service sectors is found to stimulate imports of services, indicating complementarity at the aggregate level.Multinationals, foreign direct investment, imports of services, GATS modes of supply, global sourcing, offshoring and international outsourcing, panel data estimation.