DT 13 - 23 Estimaciones históricas del Valor Agregado Bruto de los servicios en Uruguay, 1870-2020. Nota metodológica.

The service sector in Uruguay, at present, occupies a prominent role in the productive structure, representing around two-thirds of the gross value added. This has led some to argue, from differing perspectives, that “Uruguay is a country of services”. However, this characterization is far from recent. Already in the middle of the 20^th century, the service sector gross value added represented more than 55% of the output. Moreover, the historiography recognizes several services as fundamental to Uruguay’s development in the 19^th century. Despite this, the lack of systematic measurement of the service sector gross value added has limited studies on the evolution of non-material activities and their impact on growth. One of the main goals of this research project is to fill this gap and offer estimates of the service sector gross value added for the period prior to the availability of official statistics (1955). These estimates are consistent with official statistics and those available for other economic sectors, which allows for long-term analysis of structural transformations of the economy. The purpose of this document is to present the methodological notes regarding the reconstruction and estimation of the service sector gross value added series, in order to make available to other researchers the criteria, methods and sources used in this research.