Tertiarisation as an Impediment to Growth? Evidence for the European Regions

As our analysis of the overall economic growth effects of tertiarisation demonstrates, the ongoing structural change towards services does not show any negative impact on productivity change such as has been widely expected, given (presumably) fewer options available to increase efficiency in the service sector. Tertiarisation was propelled chiefly by the rise of knowledge-intense business services which drive the improvement of efficiency in other sectors due to their special role in knowledge spillover and innovation processes. Econometrically, a significantly positive link can thus be found between overall economic productivity growth and the rising importance of knowledge-intense business services and market services for the NUTS-2 regions of the EU 27 and the years since 1991. No evidence can therefore be discovered for any growth losses from tertiarisation.