Symmetric Input-Output Tables: Products or Industries?

The recent revival of input-output analysis in trade, environmental, and productivity studies—facilitated by frequent OECD publications, comes with a controversy on the construction and use of product versus industry tables. This paper shows that the issue emerges at two levels. Product-by-product tables and industry-by-industry tables co-exist and each type can be constructed according to a product technology model or an industry model. Most countries adhere to the U.N. (1993) sanctioned theory of Kop Jansen and ten Raa (1990) and construct product technology model based product-by-product tables, but a few hard to neglect countries dissent. This paper shifts attention from theory to empirics and provides encompassing formulas that admit testing of the competing models.

RUEDA CANTUCHE Jose;  TEN RAA Thijs; 

2007-12-21

The International Input-Output Association (IIOA)

JRC37524