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Regional productivity growth in European countries. The role of services

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  • Juan R. Cuadrado-Roura
  • Andres Maroto-Sanchez

Abstract

The relationship between economic structure and productivity growth has been a subject of increasing interest over recent decades. The innovative focus of this paper concerns the role of the service sector in this relationship at a regional level. Services play a core role in advanced economies, both from a quantitative and a strategic point of view. Traditionally, productivity has been introduced as explaining factor of tertiarization processes in advanced economies, while it has been simultaneously assessed that services display lower productivity levels and growth rates than other economic industries. Nevertheless, in recent years many papers and authors have refuted or limited these conventional theses. This paper focuses on the impact of tertiarization on overall productivity growth, using a sample of European NUTS-2 regions in the period between 1980 and 2007. The results partially refute traditional knowledge on the productivity of services. Contrary to what conventional theories suggest, this research demonstrates that several tertiary activities have shown dynamic productivity growth rates, while their contribution to overall productivity growth plays a more important role than was historically believed. KEY WORDS: General Regional Economics, Service sector, Productivity, Structural change. JEL CLASSIFICATION: L80, O04, C67, R11.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan R. Cuadrado-Roura & Andres Maroto-Sanchez, 2011. "Regional productivity growth in European countries. The role of services," ERSA conference papers ersa10p163, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa10p163
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    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa10/ERSA2010finalpaper163.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Sheila Chapman & Valentina Meliciani, 2017. "Behind the Pan-European Convergence Path: The Role of Innovation, Specialisation and Socio-economic Factors," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 61-90, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    general regional economics; service sector; productivity; structural change. jel classification: l80; o04; c67; r11.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General
    • C67 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Input-Output Models
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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