Understanding offshoringhas Spain been an offshoring location in the nineties?

Resumen

Offshoring of production is becoming a significant strategy in Spanish manufacturing industry. The aim of this paper is to examine the implications of offshoring on the relative demand for labour in Spanish manufacturing industry during the 1990�s. We focus on changes in the relative composition of employment and in the wage gap in order to get results than may offer some insight into the direction of offshoring. A GMM approach is used to estimate a dynamic panel data model which includes migrant labour and temporary employment rate as explanatory variables. Our econometric results suggest that, as opposed to most developed countries, offshoring in Spain has favoured the demand for blue-collar workers and has also contributed to narrowing the wage gap between white-collar and blue-collar workers. Based on these findings, we can infer that global production networks are using Spain as an attractive location for medium and high technology industries.