Fear of Service Outsourcing: Is It Justified?

October 1, 2004

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Format: Chicago

Mary Amiti, and Shang-Jin Wei. Fear of Service Outsourcing: Is It Justified?, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2004) accessed December 22, 2024

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

The recent media and political attention on service outsourcing from developed to developing countries gives the impression that outsourcing is exploding. As a result, workers in industrial countries are anxious about job losses. This paper aims to establish what are the hypes and what are the facts. The results show that although service outsourcing has been steadily increasing it is still very low, and that in the United States and many other industrial countries "insourcing" is greater than outsourcing. Using the United Kingdom as a case study, we find that job growth at a sectoral level is not negatively related to service outsourcing.

Subject: Employment, Imports, Services sector, Unemployment, Wages

Keywords: Business service, Intensity ratio, Material outsourcing, Outsourcing intensity, Service outsourcing, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

41
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2004/186
Stock No:

WPIEA1862004
ISBN:

9781451859492
ISSN:

1018-5941

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