Europe’s market for services is fragmented by many regulatory barriers. The Services directive proposed by the European … Commission aims to integrate national services markets by reducing these barriers. Several studies indicate that bilateral trade … and foreign direct investment in services could boost substantially. GDP and consumption could increase by 0.5% to about 1 …

The paper tests the role of agglomeration effects on the export decision of services firms. Recent theories on trade … predictions are tested for the services industry, with due account for the possible role of agglomeration effects in large … foreign market entry costs. A large set of micro-data for establishments in Dutch services is used to investigate this …

The sector business services contributes directly and indirectly to aggregate economic growth in Europe. The direct … contribution comes from the sector’s own dynamism. Though the business-services industry appears to be characterised by strong … cyclical volatility, there was also a strong structural growth. Business services actually generated more than half of total …