Structural Change in Advanced Nations: A New Set of Stylised Facts

We provide new evidence on patterns of structural change in advanced economies, reconsidering the stylised facts put forward by Kaldor (1967), Kuznets (1971) and Maddison (1980). Since 1980 the services sector has overwhelmingly predominated in the economic activity of the European Union, Japan and the U.S., but there is substantial heterogenity among services. Personal, finance and business services have low productivity growth and increasing shares in employment and GDP. By contrast, shares of distribution services are constant and productivity growth is rapid. We find that the labour share in value added is declining, while the use of ICT-capital and skilled labour is increasing in all sectors and regions