Deborah Winkler - Böcker

Outsourcing Economics has a double meaning. First, it is a book about the economics of outsourcing. Second, it examines the way that economists have understood globalization as a pure market phenomenon, and as a result have 'outsourced' the explanation of world economic forces to other disciplines. Markets are embedded in a set of institutions - labor, government, corporate, civil society, and household - that mold the power asymmetries that influence the distribution of the gains from globalization. In this book, William Milberg and Deborah Winkler propose an institutional theory of trade and development starting with the growth of global value chains - international networks of production that have restructured the global economy and its governance over the past twenty-five years. They find that offshoring leads to greater economic insecurity in industrialized countries that lack institutions supporting workers. They also find that offshoring allows firms to reduce domestic investment and focus on finance and short-run stock movements.

Outsourcing Economics has a double meaning. First, it is a book about the economics of outsourcing. Second, it examines the way that economists have understood globalization as a pure market phenomenon, and as a result have 'outsourced' the explanation of world economic forces to other disciplines. Markets are embedded in a set of institutions - labor, government, corporate, civil society, and household - that mold the power asymmetries that influence the distribution of the gains from globalization. In this book, William Milberg and Deborah Winkler propose an institutional theory of trade and development starting with the growth of global value chains - international networks of production that have restructured the global economy and its governance over the past twenty-five years. They find that offshoring leads to greater economic insecurity in industrialized countries that lack institutions supporting workers. They also find that offshoring allows firms to reduce domestic investment and focus on finance and short-run stock movements.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) is becoming increasingly critical to the economies of developing countries, in part due to a major expansion in the scope of global value chains (GVCs), whereby lead firms outsource parts of their production and services activities across complex international networks. While FDI delivers a number of important contributions in terms of investment, employment and foreign exchange, it is its spillover potential - the productivity gain resulting from the diffusion of knowledge and technology from foreign investors to local firms and workers - that is perhaps the most valuable contribution to long run growth and development.While substantial research has been undertaken on the existence and direction of spillovers from FDI, many questions remain. Moreover, there is a need to understand better the dynamics of spillovers in certain contexts, including: i) in low income countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa; ii) outside of manufacturing sectors (especially resource-based sectors); and iii) in the context of GVCs.This book presents the results of a groundbreaking study designed to address these issues drawing on detailed field research in eight countries (including five in Sub-Saharan Africa) over three sectors: agribusiness, apparel and mining. The book presents a summary of the results of this analytical work and discusses their implications for policymakers hoping to harness the power of FDI for greater development outcomes.

Economic,  technological,  and  political  shifts  as  well  as  changing  business strategies have driven firms to unbundle production processes and disperse them  across  countries.  Thanks  to  these  changes,  developing  countries can now increase their participation in global value chains (GVCs) and thus become more competitive in agriculture, manufacturing and services. This is a paradigm shift from the 20th century when countries had to build the entire supply chain domestically to become competitive internationally. For policymakers, the focus is on boosting domestic value added and improving access  to  resources  and  technology  while  advancing  development  goals.However, participating in global value chains does not automatically improve living  standards  and  social  conditions  in  a  country.  This  requires  not  only improving  the  quality  and  quantity  of  production  factors  and  redressing market failures, but also engineering equitable distributions of opportunities and  outcomes  -  including  employment,  wages,  work  conditions,  economic rights, gender equality, economic security, and protecting the environment. The internationalization of production processes helps with very few of these development  challenges.  Following  this  perspective,  Making  Global  Value Chains Work for Development offers a strategic framework, analytical tools, and policy options to address this challenge. The book conceptualizes GVCs and makes it easier for policymakers and practitioners to discuss them and their implications for development. It shows why GVCs require fresh thinking; it  serves  as  a  repository  of  analytical  tools;  and  it  proposes  a  strategic framework  to  guide  policymakers  in  identifying  the  key  objectives  of  GVC participation and in selecting suitable economic strategies to achieve them.

Services – from information technology to research to finance – are now as subject to international trade as goods have been for decades. What are the labor market consequences of the recent surge in services offshoring? While offshoring has traditionally been found to affect only less-skilled workers in industrialized countries, this study finds that services offshoring also has negative consequences for high-skilled workers. Focusing on the case of Germany, Deborah Winkler shows how services offshoring has grown, who is most affected and what policy makers can do. Winkler measures the impact of services offshoring on German productivity, employment, and employment structure. She provides a well-balanced synthesis of theoretical insights, detailed empirical analysis, and economic policy recommendations. Although her main focus is on the case of Germany, many insights are also applicable to other developed countries.