TY  - JOUR
AU  - Swenson,Deborah
TI  - Outsourcing Price Decisions: Evidence from U.S. 9802 Imports
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11184
PY  - 2005
Y2  - March 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11184
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11184.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Deborah L. Swenson
Department of Economics
University of California, Davis
Davis, CA 95616
Tel: 530/752-1569
Fax: 530/752-9382
E-Mail: deswenson@ucdavis.edu
AB  - This paper studies U.S. overseas assembly imports to identify whether factors related to information or search costs appear to condition outsourcing decisions. The data for 1991-2000 show that U.S. overseas assembly imports were characterized by incomplete pass-through of production and trade costs to import prices, though products assembled in more highly educated countries passed-through a much larger portion of their cost changes. In addition, the price of outsourcing imports responded to competing suppliers' prices, with the largest responses occurring for products in capital-intense industries. These differential price responses suggest that information issues play an important role in the mediation of outsourcing relationships.
ER  -