Número: 157
Autor(es): Ana Martins, Guida Nogueira and Eva Pereira
Mês: Janeiro
Ano: 2021

Outsourcing is one of the main drivers behind economic globalization, especially international outsourcing. In general terms it refers to the process of moving stages of production to external providers, either domestic (usually labelled as domestic outsourcing) or international (commonly labelled as offshoring or simply outsourcing). Over time, technological advances in transportation and ICT developments, led to a substantial rise in this phenomenon, growing in extent and nature, from simple to more complex tasks related to both manufactures and services supply. International outsourcing is usually expected to reduce production costs and to increase efficiency, however it has received substantial attention from policy makers for its potential negative consequences on the labour market. This paper combines Portuguese firm-level data from the International Sourcing surveys and longitudinal administrative business record data, to explore the impacts of the sourcing status on a variety of firms’ performance measures specially focusing on employment, competitiveness and productivity. The results suggest that international sourcing has an ambiguous effect on firm level total employment, but a positive effect on both the subset of workers that receive a salary (a proxy to employees) and on R&D jobs, coupled with an increasing effect on firm level total labour costs. Alongside these results, our findings also show that offshoring has a positive causal effect on both firm-level export intensity and trade balance, however the efficiency gains hypothesis was not confirmed. In fact, the results show that newly offshoring firms experienced lower labour productivity growth with a negative effect on both capital stock and capital per person employed.

 

Abstract and Download

  • Em Análise – Evolução do setor imobiliário nas regiões de Lisboa e do Porto entre 2011 e 2023: identificação de períodos de exuberância dos preços
    Em Análise – Evolução do setor imobiliário nas regiões de Lisboa e do Porto entre 2011 e 2023: identificação de períodos de exuberância dos preços Autor(es): Nuno Tavares e Gonçalo Novo

    21/03/24

    Dada a influência do mercado imobiliário no desempenho económico dos países, o acompanhamento das dinâmicas de preços no setor torna-se fundamental. Neste domínio, a distinção entre períodos normais de crescimento e fases de exuberância poderá...

  • Em Análise - Open Strategic Autonomy and the Green Transition
    Em Análise - Open Strategic Autonomy and the Green Transition Autor(es): Inês Póvoa, Gabriel Osório de Barros

    02/02/24

    This document discusses how Open Strategic Autonomy (OSA) and the green transition are related. On the one hand, OSA refers to the balance between the capacity of acting autonomously and openness in strategically important policy areas, which...

  • Sínteses Estatísticas Setoriais
    Sínteses Estatísticas Setoriais Autor(es): GEE/DSE

    28/12/23

    Publicação anual bilingue com os principais indicadores da estrutura e variação do sector empresarial português, por sector de atividade económica (CAE Rev. 3), forma jurídica ou desagregação geográfica (NUTS II), e respetivo enquadramento no...

  • BTEP N° 03 2023
    BTEP N° 03 2023 Autor(es): GEE/GPEARI

    17/10/23

    7.ª Edição do Boletim Trimestral da Economia Portuguesa, com informação disponível em 16 de outubro, numa parceria entre o GEE e o GPEARI, com análise sobre os principais desenvolvimentos da economia portuguesa, reflexão sobre possíveis causas e...