Services in Economic Thought

Services today account for a major share of employment and national product in the U. S. , with the employment share up from 57 percent immediately post-war to well over 70 percent today (if communications, utilities and transportation are included). This transformation (which is also occurring with varying lags in the othereconomically advanced economies) is driven by a variety of forces : by changes in consumer demand, by the rising demand for health and educational services, by new ways in which businesses are organized and the increasing importance ofcertain functions (e. g. new demands for monitoring, financing, sales promotion, and responding to regulatory agencies), and, closely related, by the continuing advances in electronic technology. Moreover, these multiple transformations have been accompanied by changes in the way work is carried out (e. g. the dramatic increases in the utilization of white collar workers, particularly professionals and managers, and the employment of women and educated workers), and by shifts in the location of work and of the population (e. g. rising importance of key cities within the urban system and of suburbs generally). The role of services in modem capitalistic economies is not yet integrated into the body of economic theory, although the need for such integration, especially as regards theories ofgrowth, market structure, and pricing, is critical. Some economists and sociologists, however, have since the days of Adam Smith, dealt with certain aspects of the role of services.

Contenu

1 Introduction.- 2 Classical Doctrine On Services.- 1. From Productiveness in Fiscal Terms to Productiveness in Terms of Wealth.- Taxes and the Resulting Classification of Activities.- Services are Wealth-creating Activities.- From a Fiscal Point of View to Investment and Capital Accumulation.- 2. Services in Economic Theory During the First Half of the 19th Century.- Jean Baptiste Say.- Jean Charles Simonde de Sismondi.- John Stuart Mill.- Henri de Saint Simon.- Heinrich Storch.- 3. Summary of the Classical Theory on Services.- 3 Marx: Standard Theory and Potential Directions.- 1. The Approach Formulated by Marx.- Productive and Nonproductive Work.- The Social Reproduction of Capital.- Commercial and Financial Capital.- 2. Services and Material Production with Marx.- The Restrictive Hypothesis of Tangible Material Production.- The Material Form of Use-Value as an Essential Characteristic of Capitalism.- 3. The Prerequisites of the Economic Structure in Marx's Theory of Productive Labour.- Main Outlines of the Workable Part of Marx's Theory.- Characteristics of Productive Work and Their Relation to Services.- The Elements of a Marxist Theory of Services.- 4 All is Productive, All is Service.- 1. Economic Relations as Exchanges of Services.- Frédéric Bastiat.- Clément Colson.- 2. The Services in France around 1900 and the Treatment of Specific Service Activities: War and State.- The Services in France around 1900.- The Treatment of "War Services" and Public Services in Late 19th Century Economic Theory.- 5 The Tertiary Sector and Post-Industrial Society.- 1. Youth and Maturity of the Idea of the Tertiary Sector.- Allan G.B. Fisher.- Colin Clark.- Jean Fourastié.- Some Topical Questions and Controversies.- Classification of Tertiary Activities.- 2. From Tertiary Sector to Services: Dominance and Diversity of Post-Industrial Concepts.- The Post-Industrial Society.- William Baumol: Service Growth and the Productivity Gap.- Other Explanations for the Growth of Services.- From Tertiary to Services.- 6 Service Society Versus Neo-Industrialism.- 1. Anti-Bell: Jonathan Gershuny or the Dominance of Goods Over Services.- First Clarification, First Example.- Second Distinction, Second Example.- 2. Neo-Industrial Service Production.- The Transformation of the Production Structure and the Changes in How and What We Produce.- The Information Sector. The Backbone of the Growth and the Industrialisation of the Services.- The Industrialisation of Services and New Accumulation.- 3. Conclusion: The Theory of Services, a Major Part of Our Understanding of Contemporary Society.- The Taxonomic Problem.- The Productivity/Industrialisation Issue.- The Demand Issue.- The Service Relations.- Author Index.