Two short essays on services markets and services regulation

The first of both short essays deals with two structural constraints that distinguish services markets from e.g. markets for manufacturing products. The 'nearness restriction' requires that producer and consumer of the service product are present on the same location. The 'non-storability restriction' is even more binding and requires that producer and consumer are present at the same time (synchronicity); the implication is that the consumer is a co-producer. Services branches differ with respect to the binding intensity of both restrictions. The nearness and non-storability limitations define a services market in space and time, with impacts for market functioning, productivity (capacity use) and product tradability. Technological trends, especially digitalisation are oriented at relieving the bindingness of both restrictions, and indirect also of the co- producer role for the service consumer. The second essay links the services market characteristics to the role of the a priori product quality uncertainty, which always drove product market regulation by local and national authorities. Regulatory differences between countries nowadays are an important obstacle to international services trade.