multinationals, are less likely to rely on imported or internally provided services. -- international trade ; services ; off-shoring …

We study ex post outsourcing of production in an imperfectly discriminating contest, interpreted here as a research … tournament or a procurement contest for being awarded some production contract. We find that the possibility of outsourcing …, outsourcing reduces the procurement costs of inducing a given level of effort if the contest organizer can collect entry fees …

. Such outsourcing leads to increased wages for the remaining inhouse production. We find that stronger unions, which imply … higher domestic wages, reduce incentives for international outsourcing. Though somewhat surprising, this result provides a … theoretical reconciliation of the empirically observed trends of deunionization and increased international outsourcing in many …