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.

The 'new economy' has been criticised greatly of late, and after the speculation and hype that surrounded the internet bubble, this is hardly surprising. This book, first published in French and updated here, however treats the 'new economy' as a discourse - one that is often misleading. In order to understand what happened during the internet bubble and the fuss that surrounded it, a central element - intellectual speculation - needs to be understood. New Economy, New Myth treats this speculation as a form of 'ultra-free-market' thinking. According to this line of thought, the internet and the digital revolution are acting as a sort of Trojan horse in spreading market deregulation across the globe. With so much having been written about the new economy, this book employs a mixture of academic rigour and readable prose and comes as a welcome relief. It will be an intriguing reading to those interested in the internet bubble - and the hyperbole that surrounded it.

The 'new economy' has been criticised greatly of late, and after the speculation and hype that surrounded the internet bubble, this is hardly surprising. This book, first published in French and updated here, however treats the 'new economy' as a discourse - one that is often misleading. In order to understand what happened during the internet bubble and the fuss that surrounded it, a central element - intellectual speculation - needs to be understood. New Economy, New Myth treats this speculation as a form of 'ultra-free-market' thinking. According to this line of thought, the internet and the digital revolution are acting as a sort of Trojan horse in spreading market deregulation across the globe. With so much having been written about the new economy, this book employs a mixture of academic rigour and readable prose and comes as a welcome relief. It will be an intriguing read for those interested in the internet bubble - and the hyperbole that surrounded it.

First Published in 1988. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

First Published in 1988. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

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.

Services now account for almost three quarters of economic activity in advanced market economies and two of the principal topics that researchers on services have been concerned with are, on the one hand, productivity, and on the other, innovation in and through services. These two issues, and finding ways to measure and conceptualise them, lie at the heart of this book. The productivity question is a puzzle in many so-called 'stagnant services', where national accounts show little or no increase in productivity, while closer empirical investigations and case studies reveal that some of these sectors are in fact as dynamic as their manufacturing counterparts. How can these opposing views be reconciled? The same applies to innovation in and through services, where many of the existing approaches retain much of their bias towards manufacturing and technology, and fail to capture some of the fundamental aspects of innovation in services. Written by some of the most distinguished authors in the field, this book elucidates the critical and complex relationships between services, production and innovation. The authors discuss the limitations of current theories to explain service productivity and innovation, and call for a conceptual re-working of the ways in which these are measured. They also highlight the important role of knowledge in the production system and in doing so make an important contribution to a key debate which has emerged in the social sciences in recent years. Productivity, Innovation and Knowledge in Services will inform and interest those in the fields of economics, management, business studies and economic geography.