Mount Holyoke Conferences on Global Challenges

Global Challenges: Winners and Losers from Offshore Outsourcin

The increasing organization of production across national borders is a key force behind the current economic globalization process. As corporations in the developed countries produce and source increasingly more products and services in countries with lower wages and social and environmental standards, an intense debate has developed about the implications of globalized production for developed and developing countries. Some think that we are at the beginning of a new Great Transformation, while others interpret current trends as more of the same.

The goal of the conference is to bring a significant part of the college community together in day-long intense engagement with the critical challenges and promises of globalizing production and an exploration of policy options. Scholars and practitioners from around the world will analyze some of the key questions that have emerged in the discussions on the implications of offshore outsourcing. Does growing offshoring spell massive job out-migration and undermine the social contract of the last half century in developed countries? Or does ongoing reallocation of production to high value-added activities eventually lead to better living standards for all in the industrialized world? Does globalized production offer new opportunities for employment and technological upgrading in the developing world? Or does the abundance of low-wage skilled labor in China, India, and middle-income Eastern and Central European countries minimize the potential benefits of globalization for other developing countries? Is the growing globalization of production a zero-sum game across and within countries, with developing countries gaining at the expense of developed countries, capital gaining at the expense of labor, or highly-skilled workers gaining at the cost of low-skilled workers? Or can globalization be a win-win situation with the right policies?

Co-sponsored by the New York Times Knowledge Network and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.