The development of the service sector in Germany and the Netherlands - a comparison

Abstract

Ausgehend von verschiedenen Auffassungen über Modelle der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung der Länder von primär landwirtschaftlichen über Industrie- zu Dienstleistungsstrukturen wird die Herausbildung des Dienstleistungssektors in den Niederlanden und in Deutschland (1882 bis 1982) verglichen. Interessant sind diese beiden Länder nach Meinung der Autoren dabei vor allem, weil die Niederlande als Handelsnation bekannt sind, während sich in Deutschland im 19. Jahrhundert eine rapide Industrialisierung vollzog. (IAB)

'In the sience of economics it is a general thought that a developing economy would enter three phases. In the first phase the majority of the occupational population would find employment in the agricultural sector. During the second phase the pith of the occupational population is shifted to the industrial sector. In the last phase a definite shift to the tertiary or service sector would take place. However, this manner of thought is exposed to more and more criticism. Despite predictions of the contrary, the economical development in 'third world' countries has been enacted according to this pattern. Also, through further reserach it has been determined that in far from all industrialized countries the process of economical development has progressed as literally. Only a few European countries have developed accordingly. In highly industrialized countries, such as Japan and the United States of America, as well as many undeveloped countries, the service sector was of old more importance for employment than that the industry was. Therefore one may wonder if the above-mentioned development model could not be considered as specifically European, rather than general. Moreover, with this confirmation one must realize that we are sooner concerned here with a West-European model and that within Western Europe a number of countries did not comply with the pattern. In this article a comparsion is made between the development of the service sector in the Netherlands and that of Germany. Why these two countries are so interesting is because the Netherlands was thought to be a trading nation and Germany a country that industrialized very rapidly in the 19th century. (authour's abstract)