Description
Acclaim for the first edition:
'This is a well-written, provocative book, featuring much new material, original data analyses and interesting insights. Despite the proliferation of books on various aspects of services, there is nothing quite like it around. In particular, examination of the challenges that the growth of services presents to conventional economics is very valuable.'
- Ian Miles, University of Manchester, UK
'This is an intriguing book that contains many interesting ways of conceptualising service from the perspective of economics. It makes a number of important contributions to the academic literature. It is one of the very few books and it might even be the only book to be written by an economist on the economics of services - it is thus a pioneer work and is of value in that it attempts to bring together the work that economists have done on services.'
- John Bryson, University of Birmingham, UK
Despite the fact that services have overtaken industry in terms of employment and GDP in developed countries, rigorous economic study of the service sector remains seriously neglected. The first edition of The Economics of Services initiated a redress of this oversight. Fully revised and updated, the second edition of this highly acclaimed textbook should be required complimentary reading to mainstream microeconomics textbooks for graduate students of economics and for advanced courses in labor, urban and regional economics, economic geography and economic history.
The text emphasizes the distinction between intermediate producer services and final consumer services. Many of the former are traded in global markets much like material goods in general, whilst the markets for consumer services are markedly local. This requires quite different micro-foundations in each case. Other key issues explored include the productivity development and quality of service measurements, as well as the key role of urbanization for service sector growth.
The critical issues for the future of the real economy, beyond the financial crisis, are also analyzed in depth. The author illustrates how a better understanding of the nature of the service economy is necessary for policy innovation, with a view to regenerating the welfare state.
Contents: Preface Foreword to the Second Edition Part I: The Service Economy in Perspective 1. Two Approaches to Service Sector Definition and Measurement 2. Merit Goods Part II: Microeconomic Foundations 3. Production Cost of Non-storable Goods 4. Distribution Costs of Non-transportable Goods 5. The Basic Trade-off and the Resulting Market Areas 6. Market Forms and Competition 7. Supply and Demand at the System Level 8. Welfare Economics 1: Towards A-Efficiency 9. Welfare Economics 2: Towards X-Efficency Part III: Urbanisation and Service Sector Development 10. Unprecedented Rise in the Standard of Living 11. Structural Change of the Economy 12. Urban Service Industries Before the Private Car 13. Mass Motoring, Enlargement of Service Markets and Urban Sprawl 14. Towards Sustainability of the Service Sector Part IV: Public Policy Towards Services 15. Trust in Economic Growth Cannot Replace Allocation Policy 16. Is Cost Benefit Analysis the Answer? 17. Towards Social Balance 18. Increased Employment for Absolute Want Satisfaction 19. The Financial Challenge 20. Summary and Conclusions References Index
