As regards labor market effects of International Outsourcing, empirical studies have difficulties in confirming theoretical results. The use of different indices adds to the puzzle. The paper examines whether measurement differences are one reason for the mismatch between empirical and...

With interest groups significantly affecting economic performance (according to Mancur Olson) and a vital interest of governments in economic growth and low unemployment in order to win elections, there should be a link between political business cycles and the evolution of lobbies over time...

Mancur Olson's theory of the decline of nations is path-breaking in political economics. It has been tested cross-sectionally in numerous empirical studies. We survey the existing results briefly, with a special focus on studies using the number of lobbies as an exogenous variable. Using data...

Considering the sector bias of International Outsourcing within a 2x2 framework, four different scenarios appear. Each industry can either relocate its high or its low skill intensive production fragment. Traditionally, depending on the superiority of a wage vs. an outsourcing-effect, general...

This is Bruegel’s third report on the internationalisation of European firms, and the first one that relies on new, internationally consistent data resulting from the seven-country survey undertaken within the framework of the EFIGE (European Firms in a Global Economy) project. In the first,...

While most of the offshoring literature focuses on the effects on relative wages, other implications do not receive the necessary attention. This paper investigates the effects on the industries' skill ratio. It summarizes the empirical literature, discusses theoretical findings, and provides...

There has been an intense debate as to the effects of offshoring and global value chains on labor, with the debate centering around possible negative employment and income effects for the low(er) skilled in advanced economies. Although sociological and psychological research has shown that...

Mancur Olson's theory of the decline of nations is path-breaking in political economics. It has been tested cross-sectionally in numerous empirical studies. We survey the existing results briefly, with a special focus on studies using the number of lobbies as an exogenous variable. Using data...

Taking Macur Olsonś theory of the decline of nations as pathbreaking in this field we develop a formal model of the behavior of interest groups and their interaction to win some deeper insights into the interior mechanics of the interest-group-state. Followed by a brief survey of empirical...