since lowskill offshoring is more prominent than highskill offshoring on aggregate engaging in a wider backward participation is associated with lower wage inequality when it is a lowskill highskill task that is received then the labouraugmenting productivity effect pushes the wages of lowskilled highskilled workers up thereby reducing increasing wage inequality however in this instance it is the highskill effect which dominates and therefore being the recipient of an offshored task tends to increase wage inequality