%0 Report %A Agnese, Pablo %A Hromcová, Jana %T Offshoring and Skill-Biased Technical Change in the Context of US Protectionism %D 2019 %8 2019 Sep %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) %C Bonn %7 IZA Discussion Paper %N 12593 %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp12593 %X We discuss the effects of offshoring on the labor market in a matching model with endogenous adjustment of educational skills. We carry out a comparative statics analysis and show that offshoring leads to a restructuring of the economy through skill-biased technical change (SBTC) where overall welfare is improved. In a policy exercise we show that, if offshoring were to be opposed by a protectionist agenda, labor market flexibility can bring about the same welfare gain. In addition, we offer an empirical analysis aimed at verifying the correlation be- tween offshoring and SBTC in US manufacturing industries in recent years. Our results show that different offshoring strategies affect SBTC differently. In particular, the evidence suggests that while high-skill offshoring strategies open the skill gap, low-skill offshoring strategies tend to work in the opposite direction. %K skill-biased technical change %K skills %K offshoring