United States, the fast food portion of the tertiary sector accounts for a large per-
centage of income), as well as more sophisticated and expensive services such as
health care, legal advice, financial investment assistance, and others all form this
branch of the economy. Transportation activities are typically included with the
tertiary sector and account for a large percentage of economic value in many
advanced economies. In addition, all typesof entertainment are also considered
tertiary activities, so music, film, and sporting events all contribute to the tertiary
sector’s percentage of GNP. Tourism and the so-called hospitality industries, like
hotels, food services, recreation, entertainment facilities, etc., make up another
large segment of the tertiary sector, and these businesses represent one of the
fastest-growing components of this portion of the economy. Globally, the service
sector accounts for more total value than any other sector, and continues to expand
faster on average than either the primary or secondary sectors in the economically
advanced world. Advances in technology, especially the adoption and expansion
of the Internet, has greatly accelerated the growth in tertiary activities in the past
two decades.
Many economists distinguish a quaternary sector, which may be best approached
as a distinct component of the tertiary sector, only in this case quaternary activities
are those that are derived from intellectual activity, and generally involve the trans-
fer of specialized information. Examples would include research and development,
consulting services, financial planning and advice, education and training, and
others. Most of the investment in these activities comes from businesses and corpo-
rations, which seek to ensure their future prosperity by gaining some competitive
advantage from improved skills and knowledge of their workforce, more efficient
means of offering their services or products, or detecting trends in the specific
markets they service. Quaternary activities are also unusual from other services in
that there is frequently no immediate result from investment; rather, the quality of
the information or advice procured may not become apparent for months or even
years. This sector is found only in advanced economies, because its development
is dependent on the ability to obtain and process large and diverse amounts of infor-
mation quickly, and also on a significant labor force that has a high level of analyti-
cal expertise. Universities, private research institutes and think tanks, consulting
firms, and other similar businesses are the key units driving the quaternary sector’s
expansion. In some industries like healthcare, the activity represented by the
quaternary sector is vital, because the time required to move an innovative type of
equipment, a new drug, or even a pioneering treatment technique to market may
be extensive, and mistakes are not only extremely costly, but may even result in
the financial collapse of the company.
The four sectors identified above all represent a kind of continuum in which
value is added at each stage, from extractive activities that focus on obtaining304 Sectors of the Economy