Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/145005 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 5970
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
In this paper we explore the role that demand uncertainty plays for the offshoring decision, and the role that offshoring plays for domestic volatility of employment. Offshoring is modeled as in Antràs & Helpman (2004), but we assume complete contracts. Firms are heterogeneous as in Melitz (2003). Uncertainty arises through recurring firm-specific shocks to demand. The presence of a cost of firing or hiring as in Bagliano & Bertola (2004) generates an intertemporal element to a firm’s employment decision in its domestic and offshore production. In this environment, offshoring is driven by differential labor market exibility as well as by wage differences. Our most important results are: 1) If the foreign labor market features a high exibility, measured relative to its wage rate, compared to the domestic labor market, then higher uncertainty has a pro-offshoring effect. And 2), under this same condition, offshoring increases volatility in domestic employment of offshoring firms and the volatility of offshore employment of these same firms is larger than volatility of domestic employment.
Subjects: 
offshoring
volatility
labor market flexibility
JEL: 
F10
F12
F16
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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