ABSTRACT
The thesis that the services sector in the former GDR was underdeveloped was based, first, on a simple comparison of sectoral employment statistics for East and West Germany before the events of 1989 (institutional comparison) and, second, on the obvious lack, or inadequacy-again
based on an east-west comparison-of the supply of services (such as negligible advertising, the lack of advisory jobs such as tax consulting, and so on) which was inherent in the system (functional comparison). This ‘services gap’ was explained ideologically, since according to the Marxist philosophy, services are not counted as a productive activity and are therefore, compared to the so-called productive sectors, paid little attention within planned economies, i.e. they received lower allocations of resources. According to this line of reasoning, the removal of Marxist ideology and the establishment of market economy relationships would lead to a rapid filling of the gap.
