Offshoring and job loss fears: An econometric analysis of individual perceptions

We quantify the impact of offshoring and other globalisation measures on individual perceptions of job security. For the analysis we combine industry-level offshoring measures with micro-level data from a large German household panel survey and estimate ordinal fixed effects models. Our results indicate that offshoring to low-wage countries significantly raises job loss fears whilst offshoring to high-wage countries somewhat lowers them. Over our sample period from 1995 to 2006, offshoring to low and high-wage countries together can account for about 13% of the total increase in job loss fears. High-skilled workers are more sensitive to offshoring although their objective job loss risk is lower relative to low-skilled workers, which we argue reflects the fact that they have more to lose from unemployment.

► Subjective job loss fears have markedly increased.
► Part of the increase is related to offshoring to low-wage countries.
► High-skilled subjectively more affected than low-skilled workers.
► Contrasts findings on objective job loss risk and offshoring.