Services Productivity and Trade Openness: Case of ASEAN
Print Article:
Using fixed effect and Generalised Method of Moments (GMM) estimations, this paper analyses the impacts of trade on the labour productivity of the services sector (at the four key sub-services sector levels: (i) wholesale, retail, and hotel; (ii) transport, storage, and communications; (iii) finance, insurance, and real estate; and (iv) community, social, and personal sectors) for five ASEAN countries--Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand--from 1990 to 2005. The results show that more exposure to exports will improve labour productivity in the services sector in these countries. Based on input-output relationships, services play an important role as inputs in the manufacturing sector, which is notable in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.
