Search Results
Briefing
Understanding the \\"job-loss recovery\\"
This Public Policy Brief presents analysis of the labor market by economic research staff at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. It is based on materials originally presented to the Board of Directors of the Boston Fed on April 8, 2004, with selective updates incorporating data reported in early June. Contributors to this brief include David DeRemer, Jeffrey C. Fuhrer, Kristina Johnson, Jane Sneddon Little, Radoslav Raykov, Scott Schuh, Geoffrey M.B. Tootell, Robert Triest, and Anne van Grondelle. Views expressed in this brief do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve System.
Working Paper
Policy evaluation in the presence of outsourcing: global competitiveness versus political feasibility
We analyze the effects of outsourcing in the presence of a minimum wage by presenting a general-equilibrium model with an oligopolistic export sector and a competitive import-competing sector. An outsourcing tax is politically popular because it switches jobs to unemployed natives. It is also economically sound because it raises national income. An export subsidy may or may not be justified on welfare grounds. Increased international competition has no effect on the level of outsourcing, but the direction of its effect on unemployment and national income depends on the relative factor ...
Working Paper
Incidence of an outsourcing tax on intermediate inputs
The paper uses a Hecksher-Ohlin-Samuelson type general equilibrium framework to consider the incidence of an outsourcing tax on an economy in which the production of a specific intermediate input has been fragmented and outsourced. When the input is ?non-traded?, the outsourcing tax can reduce domestic wages even if the intermediate input producing sector is the most capital-intensive sector of the economy. This implies that contrary to received wisdom, a tax on a capital-intensive sector may actually hurt labor. On the other hand, if the intermediate input is traded, the outsourcing tax must ...
Working Paper
Outsourcing business services and the role of central administrative offices
In this paper, I study whether there is any evidence that the market scale surrounding a central administrative office (CAO), which includes corporate headquarters, influences a firm's cost-effectiveness in procuring business services. By linking plant-level data from the 1992 Annual Survey of Manufactures with CAO information from the Survey of Auxiliary Establishments, I examine manufacturing plants' practice of outsourcing services in relation to the size of the local service market surrounding the plant and that surrounding the plant's CAO. I found statistically significant evidence that ...
Journal Article
Perspective: outsourcing jobs overseas: a cause for concern?
A rash of media stories has heightened concern about foreign outsourcing of U. S. jobs. But analyses show that many of these reports may have exaggerated the extent and economic impact of jobs moving overseas.
Journal Article
Beyond the border: Do what you do best, outsource the rest?
What is outsourcing? Why is India the leading country in attracting outsourced work? And what are the economic and political implications as firms do what they do best and outsource the rest?
Journal Article
Outsourcing by financial services firms: the supervisory response
This Economic Letter reviews both the supervisory concerns and the practices that have arisen in response to the expansion of outsourcing by financial services firms. Government supervisors have adopted general guidelines regarding how the inherent risks should be identified and mitigated. For the U.S. banking industry in particular, supervisors have established explicit procedures for monitoring the outsourcing activities of depository institutions to technology service providers.
Working Paper
Supplier switching and outsourcing
We examine supplier switching decisions using a unique database that tracks firms (credit unions) and their suppliers (data processing vendors); the data are in a panel, allowing us to track supplier switching decisions at a new level of detail. We focus on two sets of relationships. First, we estimate a model that relates supplier choices and switching to a variety of buyer- and supplier-specific characteristics. Second, we examine how> switching depends on the vendor relationships that credit unions choose: one is a partial form of outsourcing while the other is more complete. This allows ...
Conference Paper
On sales, loan contracting, and lending relationships