Outsourcing and Offshoring to Individuals

摘要

We examine jobs on a popular freelancing platform that are marked or described as potentially ongoing jobs. We consider them to have characteristics of outsourcing tasks, but they are geared towards individuals rather than companies. Our empirical research shows that such jobs are offered in programming like in traditional IT outsourcing but also in many Internet-related jobs like content writing and writing in social media, search engine advertising, or e-mail marketing. Most employers are located in the U.S. or other English-speaking countries. This makes English language skills very valuable. The data indicate that jobs are often outsourced to countries with lower wage levels. However, employers often try to outsource them to the country where they are located, or at least to a country in a similar time-zone. In such cases, they are obviously willing to pay more for the work in order to have better communication possibilities. Outsourcing to individuals creates opportunities for these individuals. However, given their relatively weak position towards outsourcing companies they risk more and probably earn less than employees in these companies or at outsourcing suppliers.