At the 2004 OECD Ministerial Council Meeting, a number of Ministers considered that the OECD could help to dispel fears about the issues related to the increased outsourcing of industrial production -- often outside the OECD area. Solid facts to underpin the identification of true policy issues and responses were still scarce and a wide range of anecdotal and often contradictory evidence was quoted in the public debate. A systematic empirical overview of trends and developments was considered to be lacking even though the political concerns related to globalisation are high on the policy agenda in many OECD countries.

This volume is a compendium of OECD studies underlying the synthesis report on this subject published in 2007 under the title Staying Competitive in the Global Economy: Moving up the Value Chain.