What follows tertiarisation? structural change and the role of knowledge-based services

Abstract

The rise of the service economy has been the predominant pattern of structural change in the twentieth century. This article investigates the driving forces behind the recent stages of this development. Focusing on international input-output data from the early 1970s to the 1990s, a decomposition analysis separates the quantitative impacts of demand, technology and trade-driven determinants of output growth. Our findings confirm the rise of knowledge-based services as the most dynamic component, thus strengthening the case for 'quaternarisation' as a process which is distinctly characterised by the substantial contribution of technological and organisational change to structural development.

Evolutionary micro-dynamics and changes in the economic structure

“…Our empirical findings are in line with those in recent work on the relative contribution of KIBS to aggregate performance, in terms of both output and productivity growth (van Ark et al 2002;Peneder et al 2003;Cainelli et al 2006;Kox and Rubalcaba 2007). This supports our main conjecture that the role of changes in intermediate demand in driving the most dramatic changes in the sectoral structure of developed economies has been overlooked throughout the long debate on tertiarization, and particularly within the Baumolian literature.…”

Terciarización económica y productividad agregada: un análisis para economías desarrolladas y en desarrollo

“…Por esta razones, los servicios han permitido transformar la producción y el empleo, de tal modo, que ahora se acepta que los servicios constituyen el tercer sector de la economía . La "terciarización" , por tanto, es el proceso de transformación de las economías como consecuencia del crecimiento de la importancia de los servicios (Peneder, et al, 2003).…”

Structural dynamics of tertiary activities in industrial parks in Bucharest, Romania

“…Tertiarization can be defined as the predominant result of the major socio-economic changes, with an extremely visible impact at the level of economies that undergone transition processes (Ferrao and Domingues 1995;Peneder et al 2003;Cuadrado-Roura et al 2003;Hutton 2004;Sanchez-Moral et al 2008;Genaro and Melchor 2010). Deindustrialization and tertiarization are two economic processes that interact, with the former preceding the latter and that in time have effects on the structure of economic life (Graham and Spence 1995;Montresor and Marzetti 2011).…”