International Outsourcing, the Nature of Tasks, and Occupational Stability – Empirical Evidence for Germany,” Ruhr Economic Papers No

Preliminary draft. Please do not cite without permission! Using a large administrative data set of individual employment histories in Ger-many, this paper studies how occupational stability is affected by the international fragmentation of production processes. Moreover, a rich data set on tasks performed in occupations is used to better characterize the sources of worker vulnerability. The impact of both international material outsourcing (in the manufacturing sector) and international service outsourcing (in the service sector) on occupational stability is found to vary with the intensity of non-routine and interactive tasks of the occupa-tion. Stability is the less negatively affected the higher the degree of non-routineness and interactivity. While international service outsourcing is associated with an in-crease in overall stability, the impact of material outsourcing is slightly negative