Fifty Years of Growth in Services: A Permanent Revolution

In 2004, the tertiary sector accounts for between two thirds and three quarters of the economic activity in developed countries. But services are sometimes suspected to slow down economic performances, while others think that the service growth is the major asset for massive employment creation. To throw light on this debate, a long term analysis is necessary, which first provides a quantitative assessment of the « service revolution », and then tries to explain it on a multidimensional basis.