Structural change and intermediary services: evidence for the early 21st century

Abstract

Sectoral approaches demonstrate that new communication technologies contribute to the change in the way firms organize their production processes, favoring outsourcing and growth in the participation of intermediary service activities. The aim of this study is to evaluate the phenomenon of structural change, using the subsystem approach (Momigliano; Siniscalco, 1982, 1986) taking a sample composed of 43 countries for the period 2000-2014. This approach vertically integrates the intermediate activities that make up each subsystem, proving to be robust to the reorganization of activities, which makes it possible to obtain more reliable indicators of structural change than the sectoral approach. The results found demonstrate the occurrence of a productive reorganization process characterized by an increase in the participation of intermediary services. They are considered innovative in that they highlight the existence of a consistent downward trend in the share of industrial subsystems in the total hours worked and in added value. This deindustrialization process is not only explained by the advancement of the final services subsystem, but mainly by the increasing vertical integration observed for the intermediate services subsystem. This subsystem registers retraction in the use of inputs from industrial subsystems, which contradicts some arguments present in the literature on intermediate services.

Keywords:
Economic growth; Intermediary services; Symbiosis