Downloads
![Image representing the file: wp0522.pdf](/sites/default/files/output_url_files/wp0522.pdf_0.jpg)
wp0522.pdf
PDF | 589.16 KB
This paper considers the impact that technology has on firms' choices over organisational form, in particular whether to produce inhouse or outsource and offshore services, and firms' decision over the location of activity. Technology reduces the transaction and adjustment costs of moving activity outside the firm and of carrying out at greater geographic distance. We find that more technology intensive firms purchase a greater amount of services on the market and purchase more offshore than less technologically intensive firms.
Authors
![Rachel Cassidy](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-08/Rachel_Griffith.jpg?itok=YovGgLq9)
CPP Co-Director, IFS Research Director
Rachel is Research Director and Professor at the University of Manchester. She was made a Dame for services to economic policy and education in 2021.
![Laura Abramovsky](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-05/Laura_Abramovsky.jpg?itok=qe_6dffb)
Research Fellow Institute for Fiscal Studies
Laura is a Research Fellow at IFS. Her current work focuses on tax and social protection policy and programme evaluation in developing countries.
Working Paper details
- DOI
- 10.1920/wp.ifs.2005.0522
- Publisher
- IFS
Suggested citation
Abramovsky, L and Griffith, R. (2005). Outsourcing and offshoring of business services: how important is ICT?. London: IFS. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/outsourcing-and-offshoring-business-services-how-important-ict (accessed: 30 June 2024).
More from IFS
Understand this issue
![Jeremy Hunt outside 10 Downing Street](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2023-02/jeremy-hunt-outside-10-downing-st.jpg?itok=m0Sc2eBL)
Spring Budget 2024: What you need to know
7 March 2024
![Female surgeon](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-04/female-surgeon-2.jpg?itok=DxoZaqMs)
If you can’t see it, you can’t be it: role models influence female junior doctors’ choice of medical specialty
24 April 2024
![Surgery](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-02/NHS2.jpg?itok=OQb9UVp8)
The NHS waiting list: when will it come down?
29 February 2024
Policy analysis
![Shopping street](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-06/Street-scene-.jpg?itok=R39cR6Xp)
How do the last five years measure up on levelling up?
19 June 2024
![London](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-06/London.jpg?itok=zm-17Mfa)
The Conservatives and the Economy, 2010–24
3 June 2024
![London aerial view](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2024-06/London-aerial-view.jpg?itok=PTOLFicL)
A decade and a half of historically poor growth has taken its toll
3 June 2024
Academic research
![Working paper cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2022-11/WP202249-Firm-heterogeneity-and-the-impact-of-payroll-taxes.jpg?itok=b9SYgzBX)
Firm heterogeneity and the impact of payroll taxes
24 November 2022
![Working paper cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2022-12/WP202255-Job-ladder-human-capital-and-the-cost-of-job-loss.jpg?itok=mkWCGd2w)
Job ladder, human capital, and the cost of job loss
13 December 2022
![Working paper cover](/sites/default/files/styles/portrait/public/2022-11/WP202246-Technology-skills-and-performance-the-case-of-robots-in-surgery.jpg?itok=ChRdRkD5)
Technology, skills, and performance: the case of robots in surgery
7 November 2022