Import competition, and the associated layoffs, have been the object of considerable mediatic and academic attention. An alternative to hiring salaried workers for in-house services, outsourcing, has been relatively scarcely studied. This strategy, however, matters for the quantification of the real effects of trade shocks, and conceptually, as the emergence of individual workers with few contractors blurs the boundaries of salaried work. In this project, we will examine whether domestic outsourcing is a frequent response to competition shocks, whether it is increasingly so, driven by organizational and technological changes, and whether it is increasingly directed toward individual workers with few customers.
Import competition and outsourcing to individual workers
Data provided through CASD (12)
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