Part of the international studies in the service economy book series isse volume 5 log in to check access buy ebook usd 13900 introduction the service quality and productivity challenge patrick t harker pages 1 10 bureau of labor statistics productivity measures for service industries edwin r dean kent kunze pages 11 42 the role of services in us production and trade an . The fact is that service sector productivity is improving slower than that of manufacturing and thus it seems as if we are consuming more services in nominal terms however in real terms we are consuming slightly less services that is the increase in the service sector is caused by low productivity relative to manufacturing the implication of baumols cost disease is the following . The service productivity and quality challenge international studies in the service economy 5 harker pt on amazoncom free shipping on qualifying offers the service productivity and quality challenge international studies in the service economy 5. All developed economies are service based economies and as will be discussed below the cause of our movement toward service based economies is not a crisis the true crisis lies in the low productivity that plagues many service operations simple answers unfortunately do not exist for this problem. By pt harker book service productivity and the the service productivity and quality challenge international studies in the service economy