Policy Implications

Abstract

The growth of business services since 1990 has absorbed about half of the growth in European employment. In addition, the business-services industry has also had impacts on aggregate productivity and innovation. In the movement towards a more competitive Europe the role of business services in economic growth needs to receive particular attention. The evidence from the USA about the use of business services suggests that there is additional room for growth. The contributions of the business-services industry to innovation, to scale economies in respect of human capital and knowledge, to efficiency spillovers and their impacts on productivity growth have all served to bring about a more productive and competitive EU economy. Most of the quantitative empirical evidence on these contributions points to very positive results.