Business Cycle and Service Industries: General Trends and the Spanish Case

Economic literature on business cycles has been paying increasing attention to the relationships between business cycles and service industries growth in modern economies. This article analyses the main stylised facts observed in some advanced economies, the behaviour of the service sector and its possible contribution to the business cycles stabilisation. The Spanish economy is taken as an interesting case-study, given the speed at which the tertiarisation process has taken place in that country. Far from considering the service sector as an homogeneous group of activities, the article pays particular attention to the cyclical differences existing between market services and non-market services. The analysis of volatility and coherence level of these activities over time enables the clarification of some aspects of the Spanish economy fluctuations. In addition, factors which might have influenced the level of volatility of the service sector are also considered. The possible impact of some demand and supply factors on the lower level of services fluctuation compared to the industrial activities, provides clarifying elements and future research topics to be more deeply analysed.