Offshoring and the Onshore Composition of Tasks and Skills

We analyze the relationship between o®shoring and the onshore workforce composition tasks, occupations, and workforce skills. O®shoring is associated with a statistically signi¯cant shift towards more non-routine and more interactive tasks, and with a shift towards highly educated workers. Moreover, the shift towards highly educated work- ers is in excess of what is implied by changes in either the task or the occupational composition. Whether o®shored activities are located in low-income or high-income countries does not alter the direction of the relationship. We ¯nd o®shoring to predict between 10 and 15 percent of observed changes in wage-bill shares of highly educated workers and measures of non-routine and interactive tasks.