Knowledge intensive business services and long term growth

Benoit Desmarchelier (1) , Faridah Djellal (1) , Faïz Gallouj (1)

1 CLERSÉ - Centre Lillois d’Études et de Recherches Sociologiques et Économiques - UMR 8019

The goal of this paper is to (re)assess the relationship between knowledge intensive busi- ness services (KIBS) and the economic growth. Taking into account various conflicting relationships between KIBS and growth, we build a multi agent-based system involving industrial firms, consumer-services firms, consumers, KIBS firms and a banking system. Our main result is that KIBS can be regarded as an engine for the economic growth and that they operate as a substitute for the material capital accumulation. Nevertheless, material capital accumulation still appears as a significant factor of economic growth.

Mots clés: Economic growth; Business services; Structural change

Domaines: Economies et finances

Benoit Desmarchelier, Faridah Djellal, Faïz Gallouj. Knowledge intensive business services and long term growth. Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 2012, pp.1-17. ⟨halshs-00748661⟩