The growth of business services and the economic cycle

Business services have become one of the most dynamic activities in modern economies. Their high growth rates in value added and employment support its outstanding position. The paper identifies short-term cyclical and long-term structural components in the business services growth. The relationship between business services and the economic cycle and the wide spectrum of reasons explaining structural growth are also analysed. The conclusions point out the importance of business services for economic progress of current economies. It seems that the structural component is more relevant than the cyclical one. The available data for some main OECD countries show that there is still a potential margin for further structural growth for business services. Some policies implications can be drawn from all this.

Internationalisation of services

Main ways to internationalisation: international trade of services and crossed direct investmen

Service industries and regional analysis. New directions and challenges

The service sector currently accounts for the largest share, both in terms of GDP and employment, of all developed economies, as well as many of the so-called emerging or developing ones. In spite of this, it has been the subject of far less research than manufacturing, although the situation has started to change in the past three decades and it must be pointed out that some activities —such as finance, commerce, transport and those most closely linked to tourism— do have significant analytical literature. In any case, this sector is undergoing very notable changes deriving from new technologies and the progress of digitalization, as well as economic globalization, in which services are playing a particularly relevant role. These changes demand specific and in-depth analyses to explain their causes and to understand their spatial and territorial effects. The objective of this work is to underscore the need for greater research effort focusing on the regional and urban aspects of services, and to suggest certain facts and trends that seem particularly relevant. Undoubtedly, services should occupy a privileged position in the new frontiers of Regional and Urban Analysis. This work aims to justify that need and pose some topics of interest for new research.El sector Servicios es hoy el que mayor peso tiene en todas las economías avanzadas, tanto en términos de PIB como por el número de personas ocupadas, pero también en muchas de las economías calificadas como emergentes o en proceso de desarrollo. Sin embargo, ha recibido mucha menos atención investigadora que las manufacturas, aunque esto ha empezado a cambiar en las tres últimas décadas y hay que reconocer que algunas de sus ramas — como las finanzas, el comercio, el transporte o las más vinculadas al turismo — cuentan con una notable tradición analítica. En todo caso, es un sector que está registrando cambios importantísimos derivados de las nuevas tecnologías y de los avances de la digitalización, a lo que se suma también la globalización económica, donde los servicios están jugando un papel particularmente relevante. Estos cambios demandan análisis específicos y en profundidad para explicar sus causas, pero también para conocer sus efectos espaciales o territoriales. El objetivo de este artículo es, precisamente, subrayar la necesidad de realizar mayores esfuerzos investigadores sobre los aspectos regionales y urbanos de los servicios y sugerir algunas tendencias y hechos que parecen particularmente importantes. Los servicios deben ocupar, sin duda, un lugar destacado en las nuevas fronteras del Análisis Regional y Urbano. Este artículo se orienta, precisamente, a justificar esta necesidad y a plantear también algunas cuestiones de interés para nuevas investigaciones

Internationalisation of services.

Enlarged version. Main ways to internationalisation: international trade of services and crossed direct investment Internationalization, Services, Imports, Globalization, FDI (Foreign Direct Investment), EU Services Directiv

Strategy and Coherence of a Program of Regional Development: A Methodology for synergy evaluation

The main purpose of this paper is to present a methodological proposal to value the synergy in programmes of regional development, regarding either their objectives or their performances. First, the main aspects of the methodology used to evaluate individually the synergy of the objectives (performances) are set out by using a Delphi technique. This technique allows to build a matrix of weights, according to the degree of synergy for every objective (performance). Then, hierarchical clusters are applied in the data processing. This technique leads to a ranking of objectives which shows the strategic value of the programme subject to evaluation. The methodological analysis shows also an application of the Community Support Framework ( 1994-1999) for the Spanish Objective 1 regions.

Sectorial structure, qualitative characteristics and guidelines of labour mobility in the European Union.

In the context of the process of construction of a single labour market in the Economic Union, one of the greatest problems is the existence of certain levels of structural unemployment. From this point of view, the imbalance between the qualification characteristics of work supply and demand as well as the determining factors of geographical mobility among jobs become a relevant explication factor. The aim of the paper will be to carry out a comparative analysis of some of the most important characteristics of employment in European countries. For this, how different employed population groups are distributed by sectors of activity and labour occupations will be analysed, how these structures have been modified over time, and the patterns of labour mobility that interconnect activities and occupations in the framework of labour mobility, in order to see whether these evolutions are leading to an assimilation of labour characteristics in the countries, or not. Keywords: labour mobility, employment, service sector, European Union. JEL-Code: J62, L80, F02