Is Outsourcing Really as Bad as it is Made to Sound? A Re-Assessment and Some Perspective

Abstract:     
The debate on outsourcing of skilled jobs to India has recently picked up steam and has become a hot election-year issue. Bills put forth in almost twenty five states have provisions that seek to limit the outsourcing trend. This paper visits some issues concerning outsourcing in order to provide nuance to some of the rhetoric. In particular, we discuss the US-India outsourcing history and reassess the key questions surrounding the subject. We provide empirical evidence in order to support our main argument - that outsourcing has been going on for a while and that the risk to US job growth due to outsourcing is exaggerated. As framing the debate in strictly economic terms is difficult given that there are "real" winners and "real" losers caught in the crosstalk, the paper seeks to offer recommendations to help ease the socio-economic impact of outsourcing.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 24

Keywords: Outsourcing, India, presidential elections, trade in services

working papers series