Offshoring and data quality

When we think about the negative impact of globalization on the environment we think of two main mechanisms - growth in developing countries leading to environmental degradation (think China) and secondly, the widespread migration of dirty industry from the north to the south in pursuit of lower costs.

The issue of offshoring is therefore of interest. When the US or EU "offshores" production what are the economic implications? This overview piece from IPZone provides a good summary and draws on articles from Business Week and BEA (Bureau of Economic Analysis).

As a user of BEA data the article makes interesting reading.

Offshoring: BusinessWeek vs. BEA

The final quote paragraph states:

I too have gripes about BEA data, but all the same, I have serious conceptual problems with these "new economy"-type arguments that offshoring/outsourcing/globalization have rendered national statistical data collection as we know it obsolete. Still, it's food for thought and presents ammunition for the globalization-is-evil crowd whose numbers are legion.