U.S. Trade in Information-Intensive Services

Trade in services has increased significantly and the United States has been a leader in services trade. The U.S. not only accounts for the largest share of world trade in private services but also runs a substantial amount of surplus in services trade. One important trend has been the rapid growth of U.S. trade in information-intensive services. This paper examines the growth and patterns in U.S. exports and imports of various information-intensive services. The analysis indicates that trade in business, professional, and technical services; financial services; and insurance has experienced the most rapid growth in recent times. This paper further discusses some of the intuitively plausible explanations for the growth of trade in information-intensive services.