This paper studies the role of efficiency in a firm's decision to contract out. Emphasis is on the heterogeneous nature of firms and when firms are only considering outsourcing to domestic suppliers. Firm-level data on Australian manufacturing reveal an ordering of efficiency between firms that...

This paper sheds new light on the forces shaping outsourcing decision by considering a certain form of non-linearity in overhead costs which effectively discretizes a firm's size into small and large regimes. Extending Grossman & Helpman (2002) in this line shows that firms unable to fully...

Young firms are integral to productivity enhancing resources reallocation. However, they need to be more productive than the average firm to play that part. In Australia, manufacturing entrepreneurs are quite unproductive upon entry. Yet, the productivity of those that survive makes a quantum...