Podcasts Government Asia's Developing Future The effect of services needs to be updated in economic activity data to avoid bad decisions

The effect of services needs to be updated in economic activity data to avoid bad decisions

Published: July 31, 2019, 9:08 a.m.

The idea that manufacturing is superior to services for powering a country\u2019s economy has long been taken as a given.\n\nThat\u2019s why some economists have issued warnings about developing countries experiencing what they call premature deindustrialization. In those countries, they see service activity overtaking manufacturing before a proper manufacturing economy has taken hold. \n\nBut what if the way services are measured no longer reflects modern production? And what if services don\u2019t deserve to be relegated to a lesser form of production anyway? \n\nRead the transcript\nhttps://bit.ly/2KeCFYz\n\nRead the working paper\nhttps://bit.ly/2OrCE8R\n\nAbout the authors\nValerie Mercer-Blackman is a senior economist at the Asian Development Bank.\nChristine Ablaza is a doctoral student at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.\n\nKnow more about ADBI\u2019s work\nhttps://bit.ly/2YuWWhH\nhttps://bit.ly/2YufPRH