TY  - JOUR
AU  - Spencer,Barbara J.
TI  - International Outsourcing and Incomplete Contracts
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11418
PY  - 2005
Y2  - June 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11418
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11418.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Barbara J. Spencer
University of British Columbia
Sauder School of Business
2053 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC  V6T 1Z2
CANADA
Tel: 604/822-8479
Fax: 604/822-8477
E-Mail: barbara.spencer@sauder.ubc.ca
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2005-06-20
AB  - International outsourcing to lower cost countries such as China and India can best be understood through the enrichment of trade models to include concepts from industrial organization and contract theory that explain the vertical organization of production. The combination of trade with the choice of organizational form represents an important new area for both theoretical and empirical research. This survey paper provides a perspective on this new literature so as to gain insights into the forces driving international outsourcing. The paper focuses on relationship-specific investment, incomplete contracts, and also search and matching, as fundamental concepts that explain outsourcing decisions.
ER  -