InfoCom Economic Study Discussion Paper（No.22）

「InfoCom Economic Study Discussion Paper」No.22を公開しました。

How ICT-enabled offshoring transformed services trade with the U.S. :
Before and after the global financial crisis in 2008

Akihiko SHINOZAKI, Shigehiro KUBOTA

This study demonstrates how information and communications technology (ICT)-enabled offshoring, driven by the cross-border movement of skilled labor, has transformed international services trade since the global financial crisis of 2008. For this purpose, we first conducted panel data analysis based on network theory to verify the determinants of U.S. services trade with 31 countries from 1999 to 2015. Our dataset includes each country’s services exports to the U.S., the number of H-1B and L-1 visas issued, gross national income (GNI) per capita, network readiness index, and an English dummy for the official language. We, then, illustrated how these factors interact with each other based on graphical modeling analysis. Finally, we examined how the determinants and their interactions were transformed before and after the 2008 global financial crisis. Our analysis yields three observations. First, higher-income nations traditionally have more robust services trade links with the U.S. due to income level proximity. Second, skilled labor in lower-income countries tend to desire H-1B or L-1 visas and create intensive human resource networks, which leads to the expansion of services trade with the U.S. Third, our study clarifies how these trade links have changed recently. Skilled labor networks and ICT networks have had the most direct and positive impact on U.S. services imports since 2008, while the impact of income level proximity has become weak and indirect.

［JEL分類コード］F20 international factor movements, F01 globalization, F14 multilateral trade and developing countries, O10 economic development.

［キーワード］offshoring, services trade, graphical modeling, skilled labor network, ICT-network

〜InfoCom Economic Study Discussion Paperとは〜

情報経済に関する幅広い領域の調査･研究について、時宜を得た問題提起と活発な議論の喚起を目的に、広く情報通信分野に関する学術研究の成果の一部を公開しています。

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