Service Industries in the Global Economy is a comparative international reference collection which identifies and reprints the most important articles on services and the service economy written by geographers, economists and sociologists. The focus is on the growth and evolution of service activities in the advanced economies of Europe, North America and the Pacific Rim within the framework of the global economy.

The first volume explores the shift away from manufacturing employment towards a variety of service occupations in the advanced economies. It provides an empirical and theoretical account of the transformation, exploring the growth and nature of service employment as well as the evolution of a service class and the issue of social polarisation. The second volume explores the relationship between service activities and economic development as well as the relationship between producer services and manufacturing companies. It also provides an analysis of the growth of multinational service firms and examines the relationship between services, technological change and globalisation.