Avoiding the employment relationship: Outsourcing and labour substitution among French manufacturing firms, 1984-2003

• Published in: International labour review Vol. 152; no. 3-4; pp. 525 - 547
• Main Authors: PERRAUDIN, Corinne, THÈVENOT, Nadine, VALENTIN, Julie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Geneva Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-12-2013; International Labour Organization, represented by the International Labour Office (ILO); Wiley
• Subjects: Businesses; Consumer goods; contract labour; Contracting out; Contracts; Datasets; Definitions; Economics and Finance; Employees; employers; Employment; Employment contracts; Employment practices; Expenditures; Externalities; France; Humanities and Social Sciences; Hypotheses; industry; Labor; Labor law; Labor relations; Labour law; labour relations; Labour substitution; Law; liability; Manufacturing; Manufacturing Industry; Obligation; organization development; Outsourcing; Studies; Subcontracting; Subcontractors; Wages; Wages & salaries; Workers; France; Outsource; Law; Labor Law; Manufacturing; Outsourcing; Firms; Firm
• ISSN: 0020-7780; 1564-913X
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1564-913X.2013.00192.x

Using a comprehensive data set for French manufacturing firms with over 20 employees, the authors quantify the use of outsourcing and show how it has spread since the mid‐1980s, leading to the substitution of external labour for in‐house labour. Empirical analysis suggests that firms outsource in order to bypass the effects of the employment relationship and circumvent their labour law obligations.