Resource information
The competitiveness of firms in open
economies is increasingly determined by access to low-cost
and high-quality producer services - telecommunications,
transport and distribution services, financial
intermediation, etc. This paper discusses the role of
services in economic growth, focusing in particular on
channels through which openness to trade in services may
increase productivity at the level of the economy as a
whole, industries and the firm. The authors explore what
recent empirical work suggests could be done to enhance
comparative advantage in the production and export of
services and how to design policy reforms to open services
markets to greater foreign participation in a way that
ensures not just greater efficiency but also greater equity
in terms of access to services.
