Abstract

This paper investigates some basic aspects about the traditionally used definitions
and classifications of service activities. The first part of the paper evaluates some
essential transformations concerning service activities, which are occurring in the productive
processes, in the nature of the product, in consumption and in the market, since the advance
of recent technological innovations. It stresses the difficulty to measure and analyze those
recent economic evolutions, by using the traditional conceptions. Following, it proposes a
revision and up-dating of the concepts, in order to adapt them to the new role performed by
this sector in the worldwide productive context.

JEL Classification: L80; B41.