Who Offshores, Where, and How? Evidence from the Hard Disk Drive Industry

Mitsuru Igami
2010 Social Science Research Network  
This paper uncovers a novel pattern of offshoring and market structure in a hightech industry, and proposes a simple oligopoly model to explain it. Specifically, the hard disk drive industry (1976-98) witnessed massive waves of entry, exit, and the relocation of manufacturing plants to low-cost countries, in which shakeouts occurred predominantly among home firms and almost all survivors were offshore firms. I build and estimate a dynamic offshoring game with entry/exit to explain these facts,
more » ... nd then investigate the relationship between offshoring and market structure as well as the impacts of hypothetical government interventions.
doi:10.2139/ssrn.1726910 fatcat:6axpx65nsbbfnpvrvgip6fwfsq