Services in Economic Thought: Three Centuries of Debate

ISBN-13: 9789401053143 / Angielski / Miękka / 2012 / 130 str.

Jean-Claude Delaunay;Jean Gadrey;Aaart R. Heesterman

Opis

The growth of the services sector has profoundly transformed developed societies, their economic characteristics, their occupational structures, and even their political priorities and value systems. No comprehensive theory of his growth exists, but for three centuries a number of major economists and social scientists have sought to analyze and explain its characteristics, dimensions and consequences. This book is the first to survey and evaluate these theoretical contributions on services growth, from the mercantillists and classicists to contemporary works, those beginning with Fisher, Clark and Fourasite, and further developed by Fuchs, Bell, Baumol, Stanback, Gershuny, among others. Throughout this critical survey the major issues raised by the ongoing development of the services are pointed out: Are services a new engine for economic growth or nonproductive' deadweights? How should services be classified in order to better understand their social functions? What about their productivity and possible industrialization? Are services the basis for new social and human relationships? This book helps to shed theoretical light on these current controversies, which are among the most important at the present stage of our economic development.

Spis treści

1 Introduction.- 2 Classical Doctrine On Services.- 1. From Productiveness in Fiscal Terms to Productiveness in Terms of Wealth.- Taxes and the Resulting Classification of Activities.- Services are Wealth-creating Activities.- From a Fiscal Point of View to Investment and Capital Accumulation.- 2. Services in Economic Theory During the First Half of the 19th Century.- Jean Baptiste Say.- Jean Charles Simonde de Sismondi.- John Stuart Mill.- Henri de Saint Simon.- Heinrich Storch.- 3. Summary of the Classical Theory on Services.- 3 Marx: Standard Theory and Potential Directions.- 1. The Approach Formulated by Marx.- Productive and Nonproductive Work.- The Social Reproduction of Capital.- Commercial and Financial Capital.- 2. Services and Material Production with Marx.- The Restrictive Hypothesis of Tangible Material Production.- The Material Form of Use-Value as an Essential Characteristic of Capitalism.- 3. The Prerequisites of the Economic Structure in Marx’s Theory of Productive Labour.- Main Outlines of the Workable Part of Marx’s Theory.- Characteristics of Productive Work and Their Relation to Services.- The Elements of a Marxist Theory of Services.- 4 All is Productive, All is Service.- 1. Economic Relations as Exchanges of Services.- Frédéric Bastiat.- Clément Colson.- 2. The Services in France around 1900 and the Treatment of Specific Service Activities: War and State.- The Services in France around 1900.- The Treatment of “War Services” and Public Services in Late 19th Century Economic Theory.- 5 The Tertiary Sector and Post-Industrial Society.- 1. Youth and Maturity of the Idea of the Tertiary Sector.- Allan G.B. Fisher.- Colin Clark.- Jean Fourastié.- Some Topical Questions and Controversies.- Classification of Tertiary Activities.- 2. From Tertiary Sector to Services: Dominance and Diversity of Post-Industrial Concepts.- The Post-Industrial Society.- William Baumol: Service Growth and the Productivity Gap.- Other Explanations for the Growth of Services.- From Tertiary to Services.- 6 Service Society Versus Neo-Industrialism.- 1. Anti-Bell: Jonathan Gershuny or the Dominance of Goods Over Services.- First Clarification, First Example.- Second Distinction, Second Example.- 2. Neo-Industrial Service Production.- The Transformation of the Production Structure and the Changes in How and What We Produce.- The Information Sector. The Backbone of the Growth and the Industrialisation of the Services.- The Industrialisation of Services and New Accumulation.- 3. Conclusion: The Theory of Services, a Major Part of Our Understanding of Contemporary Society.- The Taxonomic Problem.- The Productivity/Industrialisation Issue.- The Demand Issue.- The Service Relations.- Author Index.