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We contribute theoretically and empirically to the policy debate on the domestic impact of offshore outsourcing. First, within a simple Ricardian structure, we put forward a growth model where sourcing of foreign inputs by itself, without any transplanted channels, leads to higher growth of domestic industries. Second, by combining country-sector level panel data on production with data on sector level use of imported inputs and input tariffs, we estimate the impact of foreign outsourcing on productivity and output growth. In line with our theoretical model, our analysis confirms that foreign sourcing of inputs exerts a positive effect on growth whereas imported final goods turn out to be insignificant. This has important policy ramifications: removal of trade barriers on intermediate inputs is necessary to boost growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using an analytic of problematisation that incorporates insights from governmentality studies and migration studies, this article documents and conceptualises the role of capacity building in the offshoring and outsourcing of Canada's anti-smuggling policy. I examine the problematisation of migrant smuggling in interviews, access to information requests and publicly available texts to show how, why and with what effects, the Canadian government, in collaboration with UN agencies, engaged in capacity building across Southeast Asia and West Africa to combat migrant smuggling and interdict migrant vessels before they departed for Canada. I argue that under the technocratic banner of capacity building, anti-smuggling policy constitutes migrant smuggling as an object of discourse. Anti-smuggling policy, I contend, frames, rationalises and obscures the interdiction of refugees and the externalisation of protection as politically neutral, technocratic efforts to build capacity to combat migrant smuggling. Though capacity building may include apparently positive measures to enhance international cooperation, if it frustrates access to asylum, as this article suggests, it can be said to externalise international protection responsibilities, contrary to the principles outlined in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the imperial ship has been a key location through which to theorize colonialism and the origins of racial capitalism, little research exists on the postcolonial ship as an analytical indicator for the persistence and distinctiveness of contemporary racial capitalism. This article explores a largely uncharted territory through a critical appraisal of postwar Greek‐owned shipping. Greece's dominant place in global shipping offers an illuminating and yet understudied entry point to political economies of neocolonial / racial capitalism at sea. The first part of this brief intervention invokes the Greek‐owned tanker in threefold ways: as a geopolitical actor in response to the decolonization of maritime energy routes and to worldmaking at and through the sea; as a floating financial device that produces deterritorialized hierarchies of global space through processes of flagging‐out and offshoring; and as a physical site where structures of racial capitalism, mainly in terms of labor, proliferate. The second part of the article discusses certain forms of community waters' defense as a possible path toward decolonization and Indigenous efforts to "take sea back." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

British proposals to forcibly deport asylum seekers to Rwanda have raised fierce opposition from across the political spectrum in the UK and internationally. These proposals differ from official practices of deportation as they have developed in liberal democracies since the 1970s. There are certainly some international parallels, such as Australia's 'Pacific Solution' of 'offshoring' asylum, which is often cited as an inspiration. Yet a much clearer precedent involving the forcible movement of people to countries where they have no personal or legal connection existed for many years in the British Empire. Colonial policies of forcible removal, relocation, displacement, and dispersal around the Empire are well established. We draw attention to these longer histories before investigating more recent cases of the dispersal of refugees within the British Empire in the twentieth century. In many cases, such forced dispersal concerned those who had been recognised as refugees who were interned and subsequently moved elsewhere in the Empire. Such policies were designed to prevent the arrival of refugees in the UK. These policies have provided inspiration for asylum practices in some postcolonial states—Israel is reported to have reached an agreement with Uganda and Rwanda to deport asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea, although these are not public. In this paper, we highlight how these colonial practices of forcible displacement of individuals inform the current agreement between the UK and Rwanda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After decades of outsourcing to low-cost countries, companies are restructuring their production footprint globally. Especially having experienced supply chain disruption caused by the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic for the past several years, many multinational companies are considering bringing their operations back home (i.e., reshoring). At the same time, the U.S. government proposes using tax penalties to motivate companies to reshore. In this paper, we study how a global supply chain adjusts its offshoring and reshoring production decisions under two different circumstances: (1) under traditional corporate tax regulations; (2) under the proposed tax penalty regulations. We analyze cost variants, tax structures, market access and production risks to identify conditions where global companies decide to bring manufacturing back to their domestic countries. Our results show that multinational companies would be more likely to relocate the production from the main foreign country to an alternative country that enjoys even lower production costs under the proposed tax penalty. As identified by our analysis and as well as numerical simulations, reshoring can only occur in rare situations such as when the production costs in the foreign countries are close to that in the domestic country. Besides potential national tax reform, we also discuss the impact of the Global Minimum Tax Rate proposed by the G7 on global companies' offshoring/reshoring decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information technology and business process (IT&BP) offshoring sector in Asia continues to experience internal challenges and pressures from the external environment that lead to employee attrition. Despite the many human resources (HR)‐related interventions and practices, there remains a considerable turnover rate, not just within individual firms but across the entire IT&BP offshoring industry. We therefore question the current state of HR management within the sector and review the literature from 2000 to 2020. Utilizing the antecedents, decisions, and outcomes (ADO) organizing framework, we synthesize the different HR practices, their antecedents, and their outcomes. Our synthesis enables us to identify areas for future research, guided by the ADO framework, such as strengthening the theoretical grounding for the investigation of HR practices, greater contextualization regarding Asian culture, and acknowledgement of recent and emerging trends. These avenues can both build knowledge and inform practice as to how to effectively manage HR in the IT&BP offshoring sector in Asia, thereby reducing the high employee attrition rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book "Offshore: exploring the worlds of global outsourcing" by Jamie Peck examines the complex nature of outsourcing and offshoring in the context of globalization. The author argues that offshoring is not simply about finding cheaper labor, but involves a range of motivations and factors such as accessing skilled labor, tax advantages, and proximity to resources. The book also highlights the need for a more balanced and inclusive perspective on outsourcing and offshoring, with input from academics in both the Global North and Global South. The analysis concludes with a discussion of the new generation of automation techniques and the importance of decarbonization and continuity of supply in global value chains. [Extracted from the article]

We investigate the offshoring effect on local productivity, physical and intellectual capital investment at the U.S. county level from 1999 to 2006. By using regression with fixed effects and instrumental variable to account for possible endogeneity, we find that offshoring can increase overall local productivity and capital investment. Through industry linkages, an increase in productivity and capital investment from offshoring enhances those increases in non-offshoring industries. Industries in both MSA (urban) and non-MSA (rural) counties receive benefits of productivity expansion and capital investment from offshoring. The increased capital investment from offshoring could be a channel of local productivity and capital investment expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade in services has grown more rapidly than trade in manufactured goods in recent decades. Countries from the Global South are chiefly responsible for this shift. The research note draws attention to service investment that originates in Southern economies and is directed at markets of the same (sub)continent. Such dynamics have been neglected by academic debates focussed on global value chains and offshored, largely generic services. The authors argue that direct integration into global markets is often disadvantageous for firms from the South, as they tend to play a subordinate role, face the risk of disinvestment and hardly upgrade. Regional markets offer better opportunities. These ideas are applied to Argentina and South Africa. The fDi Markets database and qualitative information from secondary sources are used to get a better grasp of the expansion of Argentinean and South African providers of advanced services into Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, respectively. It is shown that regional markets matter. It appears that they allow companies from Argentina and South Africa to be lead firms, internationalize their business activities and achieve various forms of upgrading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the extent to which inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in advanced business services (ABS) – a result of so-called offshoring of white collar jobs – contributes to the structural change of employment in regions of host economies. We use a fixed-effect regression model based on cross-regional panel data for Hungary and Poland for the period between 2005 and 2014. Our findings show that ABS FDI carries structural impacts: employment in foreign-owned firms increases the share of the tertiary sector in a region both directly and indirectly through inducing other tertiary activities as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim/Purpose Using the Agile Adoption Framework (AAF), this study aims to examine the agile potential of software development companies in Nepal based on their agile maturity level. In addition, this study also examines the impact of various basic agile practices in determining the maturity level of the agile processes being implemented in the software industry of Nepal. Background Even if most organizations in the software sector utilize agile development strategies, it is essential to evaluate their performance. Nepal's software industry did not adopt agile techniques till 2014. The Nepalese industry must always adapt to new developments and discover ways to make software development more efficient and beneficial. The population of the study consists of 1,500 and 2,000 employees of software companies in Nepal implementing agile techniques. Methodology The sample size considered was 150 employees working in software companies in Nepal. However, only 106 respondents responded after three follow-ups. The sample was collected with purposive sampling. A questionnaire was developed to gain information on Customer Adaptive, Customer Collaboration, Continuous Delivery, Human Centric, and Technical Excellence related to agile practices along with the Agile Maturity Level. Contribution This research contributes to the understanding of agile practices adopted in software companies in developing countries like Nepal. It also reveals the determinants of the agility of software companies in developing countries. Findings The results suggest that some of the basic principles of agile have a very significant role in Agile Maturity Level in the Nepali context. In the context of Nepal, human-centered practices have a very high level of correlation, which plays a vital role as a major predictor of the agile maturity level. In addition, Technical Excellence is the variable that has the highest level of association with the Agile Maturity Level, making it the most significant predictor of this quality. Recommendations for Practitioners As Nepali software companies are mostly offshore or serve outsourcing companies, there is a very thin probability of Nepali developers being able to interact with actual clients and this might be one of the reasons for the Nepali industry not relying on Customer Adaptation and Collaboration as major factors of the Agile methodologies. Continuous Delivery, on the other hand, has a significant degree of correlation with Agile Maturity Level. Human-centric practices have a very high level of correlation as well as being a major predictor in determining the Agile Maturity Level in the context of Nepal. Technical Excellence is the most significant predictor and the variable which has the highest level of correlation with Agile Maturity Level. Practitioners should mainly focus on technical excellence as well as human-centric practices to achieve a higher level of Agile Maturity. Recommendations for Researchers There has not been any such research in the Nepali context that anyone could rely on, to deep dive into their organizational concerns regarding agile strategies and plans. Researchers will need to focus on a more statistical approach with data-driven solutions to the issues related to people and processes. Researchers will need to cover freelancers as well as academics to get a different perspective on what can be the better practices to achieve a higher level of agile maturity. Impact on Society This study on Agile work is accessible not only to the software industry but also to the general public. The Agile technique has had a huge impact on society's project management. It has revolutionized how teams approach project planning, development, and execution. The paper's findings will further information regarding the Agile methodology, which emphasizes collaboration and communication, fosters teamwork and higher quality work, and promotes the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and the pursuit of common goals. Future Research Owing to the limitations of this study, it is necessary to analyze agile practices in the Nepalese software sector using additional factors that influence agile maturity. The conclusion that years of agile experience do not serve as a balancing factor for both agile practices and the Agile Maturity Level requires additional research. Whether a software outsourcing firm or not, the organization type had no bearing on the degree of maturity of agile methods; this leaves space for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globalization of work raises important questions related to the employment of workers across geographies and how the complementarity or substitution of workers across country borders influences firm profitability. In particular, tension often exists regarding the substitution or complementarity of workers located outside the U.S. or within the U.S. for American firms. We investigate this question in the context of information technology (IT) professionals and assess how domestic and foreign IT professionals contribute to firm profit by utilizing a rare firm-level dataset with information on the locational composition of IT professionals within and outside the U.S. Exploiting a labor market supply-side exogenous shock induced by the American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act (AC21), which increased the availability of H-1B visas in the U.S. in 2001, we find that foreign IT professionals located offshore and American IT professionals located onshore complement each other in generating profits. Our model and empirical findings are important both for informing firm choices and for shaping and creating public policies that so far appear to have been informed more by emotion than by data and science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Over recent decades, developing countries have pursued export-led industrialisation policies focusing on integration in global value chains (GVCs). • Recent studies suggest that automation might limit this path for development as it eliminates the advantage of low-cost labour. • We examine this issue through the case of the wiring harness industry in north africa. • We find that automation does indeed present a risk for export-orientated industrialisation through global value chains. By comparing Morocco and Tunisia, we argue that this impact will differ across production locations based on a number of factors. • We argue that this issue highlights the structurally fragile position of developing countries in GVCs and the downside of GVC integration as a development policy. Debates on the impact of automation on the geography of production are intensifying. Automation, it is argued, will eliminate the comparative advantage of developing countries and drive processes of re-shoring. While some studies have examined this issue at a macro level, there is a need for further research into specific cases and specific global value chains (GVCs). This paper contributes to this discussion by examining the case of the German automotive wiring harness industry. This industry has passed through a phase of offshoring as German firms sought low-cost locations in Eastern Europe and North Africa. Today, German OEMs are pushing their suppliers to automate manufacturing and relocate closer to assembly production in Europe. Through research at the headquarters and in North Africa, we argue that dispersed global production is seen by German OEMs as an unsustainable and costly organisational and geographical fix that is necessitated by the slow progress of automation solutions and facilitated by the availability of low-cost labour within a logistically feasible geographical space. Through this case, we argue that automation represents a threat to the position of some developing countries in GVCs and highlight the need to move beyond the dichotomy of off-shoring/re-shoring into analysing how automation might drive restructuring of GVCs with varied outcomes in production locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By analyzing production with a continuum of tasks subject to common stochastic effects, the analysis shows that tension between business commonality and standardization is an important source of product cycles. The paper addresses the question of whether business commonality and standardization work in tandem or against each other in a general framework, when fragmentation of production is or is not possible due to contractual incompleteness or technology features. Unlike current literature, the analysis shows that a product cycle can be obtained even with complete contracts. This is so because retaining manufacturing within the firm enhances and exploits commonality in the early stages of production and, hence, reduces the moral hazard cost of providing incentives, which would be a hidden cost of outsourcing instead. Standardization later on can favor offshoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth in international trade between countries at different levels of development is one of the main drivers of economic globalization. This phenomenon relates to the new international division of labour in which an Emerging Periphery, hosting the offshoring and outsourcing of world manufacturing, stands between a developed Center and a still backward, Poor Periphery. Following the analysis of the relative and absolute indices of global locational inequality, the effect of the unequal exchange on world income distribution in the last 25 years is investigated. A new methodology based on real currency misalignments and value-added trade is presented, which accounts also for international value transfers within global value chains. The counterfactual test shows that trade value transfers represent a significant source of revenue for the Center diverted from the Peripheries. Unequal exchange widens the opportunity gap between citizens of rich and poor countries through an increase in global locational inequality. Redefining post-pandemic international economic rules should therefore recognize the effect of unequal exchange on global inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using long panels of industry-specific offshoring information and subjectively reported well-being datasets mainly from Germany, which is also supported by datasets from the UK and Australia, this paper aims to investigate the relationship between offshoring and workers' subjective well-being in the source country. We employ panel data fixed-effects models with time-variant personality measures and industry-specific measures to alleviate the bias stemming from the non-random sorting of individuals in industries. Our findings suggest that offshoring negatively relates to workers' subjective well-being. The result is unexceptionally consistent across Germany, the UK, and Australia, and the effect is larger in business services and among high-skilled workers. We extensively discuss how contextual "fear-factors" prevailing in the source countries interact with the angst generated by the negative framing of offshoring. To single out such angst, we first show that objective and subjective job security concerns, job characteristics, and labor market conditions only marginally relate to the well-being effect of offshoring. Then, we investigate how the effect of offshoring on well-being is amplified by a larger set of contextual factors pertaining to temporary economic shocks, negative narratives about offshoring during electoral cycles, partisan political preferences, and high immigration rates. Finally, we show that a recent skill upgrade significantly diminishes the negative effect of offshoring on well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterization of the American lobster harvest has traditionally been conducted using at-sea observer or dockside coverage. However, doing so is challenging for the offshore fishery and can result in samples collected from only a few vessels, which may not represent the entire, diverse fleet. Additionally, there is no dedicated offshore fishery-independent survey for lobster resulting in limited data available for the US offshore portion of this fishery. Since 2013, The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation has trained 29 vessels, with broad spatial sampling across the fishery, to collect biological data aimed to improve management. To identify spatiotemporal lobster patterns and potential vessel effects, the demographics of 145,663 lobsters were evaluated by k-means cluster analysis. This analysis showed the majority of catch for each sampling period grouped into one of three distinct categories: sublegal, between minimum legal size and 105 mm (75th percentile), or larger than 105 mm. These groups were distributed between broad geographical areas where spatial differences were shown to have the biggest impact on the catch demographics, however these differences did not always follow management boundaries. For example, the difference in catch between Georges Bank and Southern New England, does not align with the current stock boundaries between the Southern New England and the Gulf of Maine-Georges Bank Stock. This analysis could be easily adopted to compare fishery dependent data with management boundaries for other fisheries. • Collaborative data reveal spatial population demographics in U.S. Lobster fishery. • Fishery collected data show no vessel effect in collection of biological data. • Research Fleet demonstrates management boundaries don't match lobster populations. • No evidence suggesting that catch demographics were linked to a single harvester. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To save costs and build competitiveness, Norwegian shipyards usually offshore some of the processes required to produce a ship, especially steel-related tasks, i.e., they have them carried out in a country with lower factor costs. This study aims to provide some quantitative evidence of the relationship between the degree of offshoring and the production time of offshore support vessels (OSVs) delivered from Norwegian shipyards. It builds upon a recent article that introduced a typology of offshoring in ship production (Semini et al. 2018, Journal of Ship Production and Design, 34(1), 59-71). We take into account contextual factors that are also expected to affect the production time of OSVs, in particular ship size and complexity, repeat production, and the global market situation. We apply multiple regression analysis on a sample of 156 OSVs delivered from nine Norwegian shipyards between 2010 and 2018. Each of these ships was, by plan and strategy, partly produced at a foreign yard, before one of the Norwegian yards took over, completed production, commissioned, tested, and finally delivered the ship. Results suggest that the higher the degree of offshoring is, the longer is the total ship production time. Only ship size explains even more of the production time variability in the sample than offshoring strategy. In addition to these two factors, evidence suggests that also repeat production and the global market situation have a significant impact on the production time. Our study contributes to the literature on the relationship between strategy and performance in shipbuilding. It provides new insights into how offshoring strategy and contextual, product- and market-related factors relate to ship production time based on quantitative, empirical evidence. From a methodological perspective, it illustrates how multiple regression analysis can be applied to ship-specific data as a benchmarking tool to measure and compare shipbuilding performance. Findings are first and foremost valid for the ships included in the study, which opens numerous opportunities for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does globalization affect politics? One of the most controversial aspects of globalization is offshoring, when manufacturing operations and business functions move abroad. Although voters generally dislike offshoring, it remains unclear how moving jobs abroad impacts democratic elections. Using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy, the author finds that incumbent government parties lose more votes in municipalities where a local plant moved production abroad between elections than in municipalities that did not experience such an event. The result holds across various time periods, different incumbent parties and diverse types of elections. In both national and regional elections, voters punish incumbent government parties when a local firm moves production abroad. Incumbent parties' vote shares fall as the number of jobs lost due to offshoring increases. In multiparty governments, voters disproportionately punish the largest coalition party for offshoring. The results of an original survey administered in Spain verify the importance of offshoring for voters' retrospective evaluations of incumbents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most significant case of transnational state capitalism today is China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which seeks to expand/extend the country's geoeconomic and geopolitical integrations globally. We conceptualise the BRI as manifest principally through industrial offshoring, infrastructure investments and exports from China. These vectors articulate with particular places, forming transnational couplings that shape development outcomes. We examine the BRI's couplings and their development implications in the East African countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya where China has engaged significantly. We demonstrate the contingent manner of BRI's variegations; its pragmatism, flexibility, and limitations as a hegemonic or developmental project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how domestic firms adapt to increased import competition from China. Using a Danish employer‐employee matched dataset covering firms over the 1995–2007 period, we find that import competition significantly increases manufacturing firms' expansion of their business activities in the service industry (partial servitization); their probability of offshoring production activities abroad and of exiting the market. Import competition, however, does not induce firms to cease all of their involvement in manufacturing production by completely switching into service sector (complete servitization). These findings are confirmed using various robustness tests as well as an analogous analysis of a Portuguese employer‐employee matched dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ocean economy is experiencing rapid growth that will provide benefits but will also pose environmental and social risks. With limited space and degraded resources in coastal areas, offshore waters will be a particular focus of Blue Economy expansion over the next decade. When emerging and established economic sectors expand in offshore waters (within national Exclusive Economic Zones), different potential Blue Economy opportunities and challenges will arise. Following a series of interdisciplinary workshops, we imagine two technically possible futures for the offshore Blue Economy and we identify the actions required to achieve the more sustainable outcome. Under a business as usual scenario the focus will remain on economic growth, the commodification of nature, the dominance of private over public and cultural interests, and prioritisation of the interests of current over future generations. A more sustainable scenario would meet multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals and ensure inclusive economic developments, environmental sustainability, and fair and equitable access to resources and technologies across users, nations, and generations. Challenges to this more sustainable future are a lack of infrastructure and technology to support emerging offshore sectors, limited understanding of environmental impacts, inequitable outcomes, and a lack of planning and governmental oversight. Addressing these challenges will require a shift in societal values, a more balanced allocation of funding to offshore activities, transparency in information sharing between industries and across nations, and adjustment of international legal and institutional mechanisms. The sustainable and equitable offshore Blue Economy we envisage is achievable and provides a unique opportunity to build global capacity and partnership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Emission offshoring does not account for emission reductions in advanced economies. • Most advanced economies onshore more carbon emissions than they offshore emissions. • The USA net offshores emissions while China net onshores emissions. • Per-capita income does not predict which country specializes in green products. International trade and emission offshoring can reduce a country's domestic carbon dioxide emissions, helping it to reach emission reduction targets set under the prevailing territorial climate policy frameworks. We ask what is the net contribution of trade to national production-based emissions. Existing metrics (consumption-based emissions and the technology-adjusted balance of emissions embodied in trade) do not answer this question. Based on global multi-regional input-output tables and the domestic technology assumption, we calculate net emission onshoring as the difference between the emissions embodied in gross exports (onshoring) and the emissions avoided by gross imports (offshoring) for 43 countries between 2000–2014. We find that the USA offshores emissions and China onshores emissions; the aggregate trade balance explains this result while the trade composition plays a negligible role in either country. In general there is no cross-country relationship between net offshoring and per-capita income, and neither one between trade specialization in emission-intensive products and per-capita income. The developed countries' absolute decoupling of economic growth and production-based emissions since 2000 is "genuine" in the sense that it reflects domestic economic developments and is not owed to emission offshoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amongst the drivers of inequality, income distribution between wages and profits at the level of individual industries plays a key role. The factors shaping the parallel evolution of wages and profits are investigated in this article building on Post-Keynesian and evolutionary perspectives. We develop a simultaneous model on wage and profit dynamics identifying as key determinants the capital-labour conflict, the expansion of value added per hour worked, different strategies of technological change and offshoring, and the relevance of trade unions. The empirical investigation includes an industry-level analysis on 38 manufacturing and service sectors for six major European countries from 1994 to 2014. Wage and profit dynamics are shown to be rooted in structural change and capital-labour conflict, with profits driven by product innovation and offshoring, and wages rising faster where new products are relevant and trade unions have a greater role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of an uncovered liability has historically benefited foreign banks and lead currencies. Using the case of China's efforts to fund its foreign exchange needs by exploiting loopholes in the international financial architecture, the paper examines whether using state-owned settlement banks as a means of intermediating a specialised 'non-deliverable' financial asset in offshore markets can substitute the institutional and technical prerequisites that developing economies typically lack. The findings show that while offshore money markets can reduce US dollar dependency in areas such as trade invoicing that do not depend on currency delivery, increasing the offshore holdings of RMB is more challenging. The reasons for this are to be found in the way the governance, geographic and credit generating limitations of state settlement banks reinforce the constraints imposed by the uncovered liability problem. The findings distinguish the historical evolution of the RMB's offshore use from other offshore markets and reinforce the impossibility of separating issues related to trade infrastructures from those related to the structure of the international financial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article theorizes a link between contemporary masculinity in post‐industrial spaces and 'hardcore' gym culture. Over the last three decades the health and fitness industry has grown exponentially, with bodily modification and the proliferation of gymnasia, health supplements and wearable fitness trackers now a dominant means by which many construct their identities. Simultaneously, the onset of wholesale neoliberalism, which has caused large‐scale de‐industrialization and the global outsourcing of labor, has resulted in a macro‐economic shift from production to consumption in the West. Set against this backdrop, this article draws upon two ethnographic studies in 'hardcore' gyms to examine the significance of bodywork in the lives of men in two working‐class, post‐industrial locales in England. First, gym work is conceptualized as a form of both graft and craft within our samples, and the role of the male body as a post‐industrial project is considered. Following this, the gym is presented as a site of fraternity which, following the loss of collectivizing industry in both areas, allows men to bond over a shared endeavor and build genuine kinship. Ultimately, we conclude that the gym is a space of production within consumption, furnishing our sample with a means of performing their embodied masculinity and repurposing formative notions of graft, craft, and fraternity in a new adaptive space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(Antràs, 2020) argues that whereas in the 1990s it was profitable to fragment production processes, now computerization allows the automation of human tasks, reduces labor costs, and substitutes the offshoring of certain activities. We analyze imports from six developed countries sourced from developing countries to study this hypothesis. We find a decline in imports of products from sectors characterized by low wages and routine tasks, therefore at risk of automation. Moreover, imports rose within sectors known for having a significant potential for offshoring until 2001, followed by a subsequent decline. Labor-replacing tasks technologies are changing the comparative advantages of developing economies. • Offshoring was profitable in the 90s, but now computerization and automation are. • In developed countries, the imports of routine-task products have declined. • The labor-replacing technologies are changing developing countries' comparative advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heterogeneous metaprogramming systems use a higher-level host language to generate code in a lower-level object language. Their appeal is taking advantage of the module system, higher-order functions, data types, type system and verification tools of the host language to quicker produce high-performant lower-level code with some correctness guarantees. We present two heterogeneous metaprogramming systems whose host language is OCaml and object language is C. The first relies on offshoring : treating a subset of (MetaOCaml-generated) OCaml as a different notation for (a subset of) C. The second embeds C in OCaml in tagless-final style. The systems have been used in several projects, including the generation of C supersets OpenCL and OpenMP. Generating C with some correctness guarantees is far less trivial than it may appear, with pitfalls abound: e.g., local variables may only be introduced in statement context; mutable variables are not first-class. Maintenance has challenges of its own, e.g., extensibility. On many examples, we expound the pitfalls we have come across in our experience, and describe the design and implementation to address them. • Explicate the challenges in generating low-level (C) code. • Present two approaches: offshoring and tagless-final embedding of C in OCaml. • The design and many algorithms (dealing with local and mutable variables, extensibility) are presented for the first time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• First, we build a model to theoretically structure the GVC networks and then calibrate China's positioning in GVCs. • Second, we incorporate both offshore and onshore outsourcing into one analysis framework to examine the effects of the two types of outsourcing on China's industrial upgrading. • Third, we find that offshore outsourcing is a driving force behind China's upgrading along GVCs, while the effect of onshore outsourcing is insignificant. This paper investigates the impacts of offshore and onshore outsourcing on China's upgrading in global value chains (GVCs). First, based on Antràs and Chor (2018) and Wang et al., (2017), we build a model to theoretically structure the GVC networks and then calibrate China's positioning in GVCs. Next we incorporate both offshore and onshore outsourcing into one analysis framework to examine the effects of the two types of outsourcing on China's industrial upgrading. Then using its bilateral trade data and sectoral data from the WIOD (World Input-Output Database), we test empirically the impacts of offshore and onshore outsourcing on the positions of Chinese manufacturing and service sectors in GVCs in particular. We find that offshore outsourcing is a driving force behind China's upgrading along GVCs, while the effect of onshore outsourcing is insignificant. Additional empirical results also indicate that the headquarters economy and human capital strengthen the impacts of offshore outsourcing on China's GVC upgrading. Finally, based on the empirical findings, we derive some policy implications for Chinese government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we develop a metric of reshoring at the macroeconomic level, at the level of industries or countries. Our dynamic measure computes the change in the domestic–foreign input ratio and therewith captures the idea of moving production back to the home country. Additional conditions ensure that the measure is confined to actual reshoring and does not pick up, for example, mere changes in the scale and composition of production. We show that reshoring is only weakly approximated by reduced offshoring. We compute the reshoring intensity from the World Input Output Database and illustrate the use of the data with several applications. Specifically, we compute trends in reshoring for examples of countries and industry sectors, we investigate reshoring from China, and examine the impact of an increasing degree of automation for reshoring in emerging and developing economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backshoring as a way of undoing the offshoring strategy has become quite common in many industries and countries. This paper analyses the reasons that may justify this strategy based on International Economics and Transaction Cost Economics. Specifically, we point that the framework to analyse offshoring can be valid, but that the knowledge, experience, etc. of the country that once hosted those activities reduce the costs in the second degree relocation. We present the results of a survey administered to firms in the Spanish footwear industry to evaluate such proposals. The results reveal that backshoring can be explained in the same theoretical framework as the offshoring decision and therefore this strategy simply constitutes a response to the characteristics of the environment of these firms since their offshoring strategy differed in terms of the destination country, business model, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese enterprises are increasingly operating R&D internationalisation to promote their innovation performance in forms of cross-border R&D collaboration, setting up offshoring R&D centres and transnational merger and acquisition (M&A), but the existing literature has not yet discussed this topic thoroughly regarding the effect of various forms of R&D internationalisation behaviour. Based on 738 Chinese enterprises examined using a questionnaire survey at the China International Industry Fair (CIIF) 2016–2018, this study analyses the impacts of different R&D internationalisation behaviour on firms' innovation performance and the moderating effect of a firm's absorptive capacity and international experience on the relationship. The empirical results reveal (1) that three different forms of R&D internationalisation behaviour all contribute to enhancing a firm's innovation performance, (2) that Chinese enterprises can capture their innovation performance by operating multiple R&D internationalisation behaviour forms simultaneously, and (3) that a firm's absorptive capacity only exerts a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the cross-border R&D collaboration and the firm's innovation performance, which implies to some extent that operating R&D internationalisation in the form of cross-border R&D collaboration for Chinese firms demands higher absorptive capacity in comparison to setting up offshoring R&D institutions and transnational merger and acquisition (M&A). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The disruption of the trade and investment activities of multinational enterprises as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic has reinvigorated the debate on the configuration of global value chains (GVCs) as well as the risks and challenges associated with offshoring. This article depicts how the pandemic might affect GVC configuration by driving a trend toward a more regional footprint in industries in which resilience and reliability are critical. Such a shift would create new opportunities for reshoring, and affect both the types of upgrading trajectories and the governance systems in value chains. The article also draws from the intersection of the global-strategy and value-chain fields to propose potential topics and avenues for further research related to these trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research draws on a resourcing perspective to challenge the assumption that expertise should be conceptualized as an asset with consistent value for organizations, and offers an alternative view that expertise is enacted through communicative processes that create resources-in-use. Analysis of the introduction of an offshoring center offering potential expert work in a global automotive company revealed that the meaning of this potential resource was shaped by existing schemas regarding the role of expertise within the organization. Ongoing communication among workers enacted the expertise in fundamentally divergent ways, leading organizational members to characterize offshore center workers as either ineffective contractors or supportive collaborators. Findings extend ongoing discussions in organizational communication by demonstrating expertise as emergent in communication among workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Differentiated effects of offshoring on employment across industries and professional groups. • Offshoring activities are mainly driven by a cost reduction (labour saving) rationale. • Negative effects of offshoring on employment are found in the manufacturing industry and among the least qualified jobs. • In high-technology industries, the negative effects of offshoring on employment are found among managers and crafts. • In low-technology industries, job losses are found among manual workers. This paper assesses the employment impact of offshoring in five European countries (Germany, Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom), distinguishing between different types of inputs/tasks offshored, different types of offshoring industries and types of professional groups. The empirical evidence shows that offshoring activities are mainly driven by a cost reduction (labour saving) rationale. This is particularly the case for the manufacturing industry where offshoring is found to exert a negative impact among the less qualified or more routinized types of jobs, while the main difference between high- and low-technology industries has to do with the type of labour tasks that are offshored and the types of domestic jobs that are affected. In high-technology industries the negative effects of offshoring on employment are concentrated among managers and crafts. A specular pattern is found in the case of the low-technology industries where job losses are found among manual workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to trace the performance consequences of within-lead firm reconfigurations of global value chains with respect to business performance and upgrading. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on two detailed company case studies which are analysed in an organizational design approach. Findings: Lead firms systematically separate and internalize high value-added activities in otherwise low value-added processes leading to constant reconfigurations and reorganizations of the production processes in global value chains. The study finds that similar reconfigurations may trigger different changes and changes and performance consequences may differ considerably according to the level of analysis. The two cases help to understand the specific roles of the outsourcing and offshoring decisions in shaping actual global value chain structures. Originality/value: The consequences of within-lead firm reconfigurations are rarely analysed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extraterritorial maritime interdiction is a common tactic used by destination states to keep unwanted migrants from reaching their borders. But it is problematic, raising legal concerns about refoulement as well as political concerns about sovereignty. Where did extraterritorial interdiction come from, and how has it become so widespread? This article draws on archival sources and contemporaneous legal opinions from within the Reagan administration to tell the origin story of the pivotal 1981 United States–Haiti agreement that pioneered this model of border control. Even at the time of adoption, this agreement faced legal challenges, and was viewed as a solution of last resort. Yet many of the legal challenges of modern extraterritorial interdiction trace back to the unique circumstances shaping this first agreement—including the need to cooperate with countries of embarkation, anticipatory determination of attempted entry and the offshoring of protection responsibilities. They were locked in by path-dependent feedback mechanisms domestically and then diffused internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a measure of the volume of offshoring conducted by 62 countries, the intrinsic properties of the global offshoring network are analyzed: size, density, and others. From these properties, we extract information about which countries and sectors of the economy are the main drivers of the network. We find a regularity through the network of all sectors, which we call a stylized fact, that yields an insight into the uniform trade integration of countries through time. Additionally, we construct the measure of implied comparative advantage (ICA) – proposed by Hausmann et al. (2019. Implied comparative advantage) – and empirically verify, for the offshoring conducted by these 62 countries, the hypothesis of a systematic correlation between pairs of industries across different countries. Finally, since the ICA measure is a predictor of the revealed comparative advantage for the offshoring, we verify that the ICA measure preserves the basic properties of the original offshoring network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of technology with an anthropological background have considered technology to be an extension or substitute of human organs. Due to technology man is able to enhance his bodily abilities and to act beyond his natural limitations (as described in the work of Arnold Gehlen). Contrary to this perspective phenomenological theories of technology conceptualised technology in opposition to man, as its complex and opaque counterpart (as discussed e.g. in the works of Hans Blumenberg). These two theoretical perspectives can be combined with correspondent sociological diagnoses: the concept of "Landnahme" (the taking over of land) according to Klaus Dörre and the concept of "offshoring" as discussed by John Urry. On the one hand, "Landnahme" means that the expansion of capitalist commodification is constantly expanded on external terrain -- which corresponds with the anthropological theory of technology in the sense of crossing distances and appropriating space. On the other hand, the logics of "offshoring" -- the logics of secrets and enclosure -- corresponds with the phenomenological concept of technology (technology as "black box"). Objects, practices and power relations disappear beyond the horizon. Deducted from these two lines of reasoning (anthropological concepts of technology and "Landnahme" on the one hand and a phenomenological understanding of technology and "offshoring" on the other) questions regarding the relationship between the logics of spatial expansion and simultaneous strategies of retreat arise. The thesis will be introduced that power over space is not simply synonymous with power over technology. Instead, power can be conceptualised as the ability to -- selectively and deliberately -- switch between or combine technological strategies of "Landnahme" and "offshoring". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marine reserves constitute effective tools for preserving fish stocks and associated human benefits. However, not all reserves perform equally, and predicting the response of marine communities to management actions in the long run is challenging. Our decadal-scale survey of recreational fishing yields at France's 45-year old Cerbère-Banyuls marine reserve indicated significant protection benefits, with 40–50% higher fishing yields per unit effort in the partial-protection zone of the reserve (where fishing is permitted but at a lower level) than in surrounding non-reserve areas. Over the period 2005–2014, catch per unit effort (CPUE) declined both inside and outside the reserve, while weight per unit effort (WPUE) increased by 131% inside and decreased by 60% outside. Different CPUE and WPUE trajectories among fish families indicated changing catch assemblages, with yields increasing for the family most valued by fisheries, Sparidae (the ecological winners). However, reserve benefits were restricted to off-shore fishermen (the social winners), as on-shore yields were ~4 times lower and declining, even inside the reserve. Our study illustrates how surveys of recreational fishing yields can help evaluate the effectiveness of marine protected areas for key social and ecological protagonists. We show that, more than four decades after its establishment, fishing efficiencies at the historical Cerbère-Banyuls marine reserve are still changing, but benefits in terms of catch abundance, weight, and composition remain predominantly restricted to off-shore fishermen. Further regulations appear necessary to guarantee that conservation strategies equitably benefit societal groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural resource-based regions are increasingly accommodating large mobile workforces to support renewed industrial investments. As large-scale resource development projects are mobilized, however, industries' use of mobile work camps and outsourcing with established global supply chain networks may exclude rural businesses and communities from associated economic benefits, particularly in the absence of local content policies. To date, however, research has largely focused on supply chain opportunities pertaining to the construction or operations of resource development assets, with limited consideration of the issues that must be considered in order for local businesses to capture benefits from mobile workforces. Drawing upon interviews with businesses in Fort St. John, British Columbia, Canada, we use issues unfolding in the new institutionalism discourse to explore the roles of senior governments in strengthening local benefits related to mobile workforces, as well as some of the challenges that existing policy roles and debates present to better position rural businesses in these resource-based regions. Our findings suggest that underdeveloped and under-resourced senior government policies, regulations, and processes are entrenching the role of rural regions as resource banks instead of creating a competitive playing field for rural businesses to capture, and locally anchor, economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offshoring has been commonly adopted by organizations in developed countries, which relocate their business activities to low-cost countries to achieve cost-saving, improved flexibility, and greater effectiveness. Manufacturing offshoring has been a crucial business decision impacting the performance and ultimate survival of companies. For this reason, the selection of offshore locations is a strategically important decision involving various conflicting factors, which makes it a typical multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In this study, twenty-five alternative countries are ranked according to thirty-two conflicting criteria. In this regard, the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process is used to obtain the weights of each criterion. The evaluations of three decision-makers are considered. A comparative analysis of evaluating offshore locations using five MCDM methods—preference-ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation, vise kriterijumska optimizacija i kompromisno resenje, weighted sum method, elimination and choice translating reality, and technique for order of preference by similarity to the ideal solution—is performed by using real data collected from various reliable sources. An illustrative case is implemented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The outcomes of the proposed models are compared to each other and the list of leading offshoring countries from the statistical institutions. A sensitivity analysis is performed to minimize subjectivity, as the outcome of the ranking methods heavily depends on the criteria weights. The results indicate that all the proposed methods can be utilized for the problem, and greater weight should be given to the accessibility and labor criteria groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a model of offshoring of tasks to a developing nation characterized by a minimum-wage formal sector and a flexible-wage informal sector. Some offshored tasks are outsourced by the formal sector to the lower-wage informal sector. Productivity improvements in performing offshored tasks in the developing nation increase offshoring, but not necessarily formal-to-informal sector outsourcing, which can cause the developed nation's wage to fall. Productivity improvements in the developing nation's informal sector expand both offshoring and outsourcing, causing the developed nation's wage to rise. When the minimum wage is reduced in the developing nation, the developed nation's wage falls when most of the efficiency gains accrue to the informal sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]