Enhancing The Performance Of The Services Sector

The services sector now accounts for over 70% of employment and value added in OECD economies. It also accounts for almost all employment growth in the OECD area. But despite its growing weight in OECD economies, productivity growth and employment ...

The services sector now accounts for over 70% of employment and value added in OECD economies. It also accounts for almost all employment growth in the OECD area. But despite its growing weight in OECD economies, productivity growth and employment rates in services remain low in many OECD countries. To improve the basis for future economic growth and to address the rapid globalisation of OECD economies, the services sector will need to do better than is currently the case. But how can services performance be improved? And which factors and policies are the most important?This report provides an overview of the role of services in economic performance, and the factors that affect services sector performance. This includes the role of labour and product markets, the impact of barriers to trade in services, the role of innovation in services and the impacts of information and communications technology (ICT) on the services sector. The report also includes a paper presenting case studies of successful services firms, which help illustrate the broader analysis from OECD data.The report shows that services are indeed of growing importance to OECD economies, but that not all OECD economies have sufficiently adjusted their policies to seize greater benefits from the potential for growth and innovation in the services sector. Adjusting these polices will help in preparing OECD economies for a future characterised by an increasingly internationalised and competitive services sector.

Abstract: This paper examines the structure and performance of the services sector in Eastern European and Central Asian countries during 1997-2004. Services represent an increasing share of total value added and employment with the major sub-sectors being wholesale trade, retail trade, inland transport, telecommunications, and real estate activities. A clear divide separates EU-5 countries from South Eastern European countries and Ukraine in terms of services labor productivity. Although a large gap in productivity also separates EU-8 countries from EU-15 countries, that gap was reduced from 1997 to 2004 as most services sub-sectors experienced fast productivity growth. High skill intensive sub-sectors and information and communications technology producers and users have exhibited higher productivity levels and growth rates relative to other sub-sectors since 2000. The author finds a positive effect of services liberalization on the productivity growth of services sub-sectors. The author also finds a positive and significant effect of services liberalization in both finance and infrastructure on the productivity of downstream manufacturing.

Within American service sector organizations there exists a gap between understanding customer service quality improvement (QI) theories and applying them. Improving Service Quality in the Global Economy: Achieving High Performance in Public and Private Sectors, Second Edition fills that gap by presenting theory, application models, and cases of successful customer service QI efforts in both the public and private sectors. The book emphasizes the selection and development of strategies for quality improvement in regulated public non-market-driven services such as education, government, and healthcare. This revised edition promotes managerial thinking that integrates QI and Knowledge Management (KM) concepts with leadership principles that enable effective responses to the changing demands of the global economy. The text provides step-by-step guidelines, recommendations, and action plans for implementing quality improvements in service sector industries, which now generate two-thirds of America's GDP. Throughout this volume, cases of successful QI efforts in service industries complement major points in each chapter, offering profiles of global service quality leaders that serve as examples to organizations in the public sector. Current and future managers will gain insight into how the global service quality revolution effects their daily work environments, inspiring improvement in products, services, and support that American companies provide to markets worldwide.

Services industries account for almost three-quarters of both gross domestic product and employment in Canada, a trend that Canada shares with other G-7 countries. Furthermore, the services sector has been responsible for most of Canada's employment creation and much of its productivity growth over the past decade and the sector's importance to the Canadian economy continues to increase. Thirty renowned experts contribute to this volume, which is aimed at better understanding the dynamics of Canadian services industries and identifying the types of policies most likely to improve their innovation and productivity performance.

There is growing international evidence that the effectiveness of health services stems primarily from the extent to which the incentives facing providers and consumers are aligned with ""better health"" objectives. Efficiency in health service provision requires that providers and consumers have incentives to use healthcare resources in ways that generate the maximum health gains. Equity in at least one sense requires that consumers requiring the same care are treated equally, irrespective of their ability to pay. Efficiency in the use of health services requires that consumers are knowledgeable about the services on offer and which are most appropriate to their needs. The papers in this volume are selected from an international conference organised by the CDRI, Cambodia, that tried to deal with some of these issues. With participation of international and local experts, it aimed at collecting major experiences and innovative solutions from inside and outside the country to improve health sector performance, with particular focus on institutions, motivations and incentives.