Business services and the Baumol disease

The business services industry represents a large and fast-growing chunk of the Dutch economy, approaching the size of the total manufacturing industry. The industry, however, has displayed stagnating productivity growth, accompanied in some years by a fall in productivity. Do these stylised facts imply that the Dutch economy is inevitably headed for the “Baumol disease”? Investigating this question, this paper reviews policy options that might improve the productivity record of the business services industry and strengthen its contributions to the productivity of client industries.