A Complete Characterization of the Distributional Effects of International Outsourcing in the Heckscher-Ohlin Model

This paper determines the distributional effects of international outsourcing in a two sector Heckscher-Ohlin type model. It is shown that the factor-biased and the sector-biased impact of international outsourcing discussed in the literature can be seen as special cases of the more general characterization presented in this paper. Concerning the welfare implications of international outsourcing, the main finding is that a Pareto-improvement cannot be excluded from a theoretical point of view.