Does offshoring boost productivity? A comparison of SMEs and large firms for Germany

We use plant-level evidence for Germany to explore the productivity effects of offshoring small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) compare them those derived a sample large companies. SMEs usually face tighter resource constraints than larger companies, thus making it harder reap potential gains associated with offshoring. find group that plants offshore business activities tend be among more productive ones, ex ante. However, lose this edge over their non-offshoring counterparts. The initial gap is reversed, lags behind even several years after has actually taken place. Neither observation can confirmed