On 22 December 2005, the Director of the Foundation signed an agreement with Professor Luís Rubalcaba to support research under the above-mentioned title, the result of which will be the publication of a book, in English and Spanish versions, to be coordinated by Professors Luís Rubalcaba and Henk Kox. This book, in which leading European specialists in the field of service economics will participate, aims to study the fundamental characteristics of this sector and its contribution to economic growth.
The study of services activities in Europe, which is the subject of this Convention, is developed in a comprehensive, clear and rigorous way, and will allow to describe the situation, prospects and challenges of this sector in the European economy, as well as to draw the appropriate implications for European economic policy. The research is characterised by the following strengths and novelties in relation to other work on services:
- Comprehensive in nature, covering all the major groups of services and the range of issues affecting them, which are currently widely dispersed and in no clear order;
- Economic focus, as opposed to other recent geographical or regional research;
- Newly developed data and statistics presented for the first time;
- European approach, both in terms of analytical framework and policies (enterprise, competition, single market, innovation);
- Emphasis on the entrepreneurial nature of services and the need for economic policy to respect market freedom. Critical view of inefficient regulation that impedes competition in services markets.
The structure of the research is as follows:
- Historical and anthropological origin of the service economy;
- Growth, employment and explanatory factors of services;
- Productivity in services: debate and evidence;
- Service innovation and its dimensions;
- Services and globalisation;
- Regulation in services and its reform;
- European competition policy in services;
- The slow road to an internal market for services;
- Complementary policies on services;
- Conclusions and final considerations.
The research resulted in a book in English published in 2007 by PalgraveMacMillan and will be published in Spanish in the Foundation's Economics and Business Collection.
The content of this research materialised in the book "Business Services in European Economic Growth" published in 2009.
