DISAGGREGATING THE ELECTRICITY SECTOR OF CHINA'S INPUT–OUTPUT TABLE FOR IMPROVED ENVIRONMENTAL LIFE-CYCLE ASSESSMENT

Missing process detail of sectors in Input–Output (I–O) tables has been pointed out as a limitation of I–O analysis in environmental-economic life cycle assessment. Aggregation of resource-intensive sectors decreases the accuracy of the results. Often, economic sectors are compiled in a more aggregated form than environmental satellite accounts, and as [Lenzen, M. (2011) Aggregation Versus Disaggregation in Input–Output Analysis of the Environment. Economic Systems Research, 23, 73–89] asserts, it is superior for environmental analysis to disaggregate the I–O table, even if only partial information exists for the disaggregation. In this paper we present a methodology to disaggregate the electricity sector of the Chinese national I–O table by using regional information and cost data for operation and maintenance of power plants. The electricity sector is disaggregated into a transmission and distribution sector as well as eight sub-sectors representing different types of technology in power plants (subcritical coal, hydro, etc.). The electricity consumption mix of each industry is determined by using regional industry presence and regional electricity power mixes. The disaggregated I–O table offers refined results for calculating emissions embodied in international exports from China, a valuable contribution for estimating national greenhouse gases emissions inventories under the consumption-based approach for countries that rely heavily on imports of goods from China.     

Measuring industrial upgrading: applying factor analysis in a global value chain framework

ABSTRACT

A key question for promoting international competition is how to improve the position of countries and industries in global value chains (GVCs). The first step is to properly measure industrial upgrading in GVCs. This is not a trivial issue because upgrading has not been defined unambiguously. Several authors have used different (and sometimes related) measures, all of which indicate certain aspects of upgrading. Rather than trying to find the single, ultimate measure of upgrading, we propose a different approach. We examine the multidimensionality of industrial upgrading, using eight indicators in factor analysis. Four of the eight indicators adopt the GVC perspective and include, for example, the growth of the share in value-added exports. We provide three quantitative dimensions of industrial upgrading: process upgrading, product upgrading, and skill upgrading. With these dimensions, we compare and analyze the upgrading of different countries and industries using the World Input–Output Database.     

New Methods of Updating Input–Output Matrices

The paper describes several new methods of updating Input–Output matrices. The deficiency of the conventional methods of updating these matrices is that they do not make much use of the commonly available interindustry data and thus exhaust only a small number of the available degrees of freedom. The updating methods described here are based on consistency relationships derived from the Leontief output and price systems. Thereby these methods bring substantially more interindustry data to bear on the updating process, and consequently give rise to better Input–Output coefficient estimates.     

INPUT–OUTPUT ANALYSIS: THE NEXT 25 YEARS

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the International Input–Output Association and the 25th volume of Economic Systems Research. To celebrate this anniversary, a group of eight experts provide their views on the future of input–output. Looking forward, they foresee progress in terms of data collections, methods, theory testing, and focus and scope.     

Factors driving embodied carbon in international trade: a multiregional input–output gravity model

ABSTRACT

Concerns about the effects and consequences of climate change have notably increased in recent decades. Despite large advances in the understanding of this phenomenon, further research into the determinants of gas emissions is necessary, to shed light on the responsibilities of producers and consumers, and their potential contribution to mitigation strategies. This paper studies the trajectories and determinants of carbon embodied in world trade during a period of 15 years. Our methodology relies on a multiregional input–output model, environmentally extended. Drawing on data from the World Input–Output Database, we estimate embodied emissions in bilateral flows. Then, we assess the determinants of CO₂ emissions embodied in trade, combining input–output modelling with trade gravity panel data analysis. This paper offers a methodological approach that explains and quantifies the underlying factors of carbon trade, integrating the production and consumption perspectives and considering the geographical, structural and institutional context of countries.     

Non-Market Services in Input–Output Analysis

Based on an Input–Output framework, the first part of the paper presents methodological problems of quantifying non-market services. Considering the static Input–Output table we extended the matrix of technological coefficients by some sectors of unpaid public goods. With the aid of a new intepretation of intersectoral flows measured by single elements of input and by quantifying structural effects of non-market services in interrelations with market goods and services an assessment of the output of non-market services can be given. Using the dynamic Leontief model for analysing non-market services in macroeconomics our model turned out to be Ljapunov-stable. But in spite of this general stability the system covering an economically suitable period was practically unstable. In the second part structural effects of non-market services according to both static and dynamic Input–Output models with an estimated data basis of the GDR economy are discussed.     

Intercountry feedback and spillover effects within the international supply and use framework: a Bayesian perspective*

This paper proposes a new framework for the estimation of product-level global and interregional feedback and spillover (FS) factor multipliers. The framework is directly based on interregional supply and use tables (SUTs) that could be rectangular and gives a possibility of taking account of the inherent input–output data uncertainty problems. A Bayesian econometric approach is applied to the framework using the first version of international SUTs in the World Input–Output Database. The obtained estimates of the global and intercountry FS output effects are discussed and presented at the world, country and product levels for the period of 1995–2009.     

A SYMMETRIC INPUT–OUTPUT TABLE FOR EU27: LATEST PROGRESS

The European Commission is currently establishing an Environmentally Extended Input–Output (EE-IO) Database for the EU27 developed by the Joint Research Centre at the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS). This project attempts to generate an analytical dataset comprising all EU countries and yearly time series for the period 1995–2005. Since, for the time being, IO and environmental accounts data are only available with significant gaps part of the dataset will require estimates based on best available proxy data and reasonable assumptions. This paper is focused on the IO database shaped around Eurostat supply and use tables and symmetric IO tables consistent with the NACE classification. The paper describes the procedure by which the latest preliminary results have been obtained for an aggregate EU27 symmetric input–output table for the year 2000.     

Assessment of European Use tables at basic prices and valuation matrices in the absence of official data

Input–Output modellers are often faced with the task of estimating missing Use tables at basic prices and also valuation matrices of the individual countries. This paper examines a selection of estimation methods applied to the European context where the analysts are not in possession of superior data. The estimation methods are restricted to the use of automated methods that would require more than just the row and column sums of the tables (as in projections) but less than a combination of various conflicting information (as in compilation). The results are assessed against the official Supply, Use and Input–Output tables of Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, Austria and Slovakia by using matrix difference metrics. The main conclusion is that using the structures of previous years usually performs better than any other approach.     

The Global MRIO Lab – charting the world economy

ABSTRACT

We describe the creation of the Global Multi-Region Input–Output (MRIO) Lab, which is a cloud-computing platform offering a collaborative research environment through which participants can use each other’s resources to assemble their own individual MRIO versions. The Global MRIO Lab’s main purpose is to harness and focus previously disparate resources aimed at compiling large-scale MRIO databases that provide comprehensive representations of interregional trade, economic structure, industrial interdependence, as well as environmental and social impact. Based on the operational Australian Industrial Ecology Lab, a particularly important feature of this cloud environment is a highly detailed regional and sectoral taxonomy called the ‘root classification’. The purpose of this root is to serve as a feedstock from which researchers can choose any combination of regions and economic sectors to form a model of the economy that is suitable to address their particular research questions. Thus, the Global MRIO Lab concept enables enhanced flexibility in MRIO database construction whilst at the same time saving resources and avoiding duplication, by sharing time- and labour-intensive tasks amongst multiple research teams. We explain the concept, architecture, development and preliminary results of the Global MRIO Lab, and discuss its ability to continuously deliver some of the most prominent world MRIO databases.     

A POST-KEYNESIAN AGE MODEL TO FORECAST ENERGY DEMAND IN SPAIN

This paper develops an extended input–output model for the estimation of energy demand and related issues. It is built on the last Spanish Symmetric Input–Output Table (IOT, 2005). It has been tested for the period 2005–2008 and used for forecasting energy demand for the years 2009–2012 under different economic scenarios. The model shares some traits of the computable and applied general equilibrium models where quantity and price systems are interwoven. The differences lie in the theories explaining output and prices. Our quantity system is based on Keynes’ principle of effective demand (broad energy multipliers are derived). The price system is based on the classical (Sraffian) theory of prices of production, akin to post-Keynesian full-cost prices. The general price system can be manipulated to account for the specificities of energy prices. Historical trends of energy coefficients are computed by extrapolation of past IOTs and calibration.     

On the financial balance of input–output constructs: revisiting an axiomatic evaluation

Financial balance is fundamental to input–output (IO) analysis, and consequently the respect of this balance is one of the dominant criteria in evaluating IO constructs. Kop Jansen, and ten Raa [(1990) The Choice of Model in the Construction of Input–Output Coefficients Matrices. International Economic Review 31, 213] proved that the byproduct-technology construct (BTC) and the industry-technology construct (ITC) do not generally conserve financial balance. In contrast, Majeau-Bettez et al. [(2016) When do Allocations and Constructs Respect Material, Energy, Financial, and Production Balances in LCA and EEIO? Journal of Industrial Ecology 20, 67–84] demonstrated that the BTC necessarily respects financial balance and that the ITC is always financially balanced when applied to data recorded in monetary units. The present article resolves this paradox.     

Development of environmentally extended social accounting matrices for policy analysis in Alberta

This paper outlines the development of inputs to an integrated land use and transportation model based on a series of environmentally extended social accounting matrices (SAMs) for the Canadian province of Alberta. A novel form of industry disaggregation is employed, based on aggregate iterative proportion and a unique formulation of location quotients. Social accounts are extended via the inclusion of detailed household consumption broken down by income quintiles. The SAMs are developed from supply-use matrices. Physical flow accounts are framed as derived demands, acting as necessary inputs to the production of downstream goods and services. Applications to regional economic modeling are considered, as planning authorities increasingly seek to model the environmental impacts of policy. The SAMs are then applied to the assessment of two technology change scenarios: a shift in the provincial electricity generation mix and a transition to a fully electric private automobile fleet.     

THE EXTENDED ECONOMETRIC INPUT–OUTPUT MODEL WITH HETEROGENEOUS HOUSEHOLD DEMAND SYSTEM

This paper proposes an extension to the regional econometric input–output model (REIM) [Conway, R.S. (1990) The Washington Projection and Simulation Model: A Regional Interindustry Econometric Model. International Regional Science Review, 13, 141–165; Israilevich, P.R., G.J.D. Hewings, M. Sonis and G.R. Schindler (1997) Forecasting Structural Change with a Regional Econometric Input–Output Model. Journal of Regional Science, 37, 565–590]. We integrate a demand system with age and income parameters into the REIM. The extended model thus addresses concerns about the effects of household heterogeneity. The initial testing is conducted with a model for the Chicago metropolitan area. First, using aggregate expenditure data by income and age groups, the almost ideal demand system with group fixed effects is constructed. Next, the estimated demand system is linked to the REIM to reflect long-term changes in the age and income distribution of households. The long-range simulation from the extended model takes into account structural changes in expenditure type stemming from changing demographic composition. The extended model further broadens the scope of impact analysis under various scenarios associated with age and income changes.     

International trade,pollution, and economic structure: evidence on CO2 emissions for the North and the South

This study investigates the mechanics of international trade and CO₂ emissions in two blocs of countries (‘North’ and ‘South’) by analyzing data from the World Input–Output Database. We adapt the Miyazawa technique to estimate the linkages between international trade and the environment at a global scale. Therefore, this study is in line with the idea of highlighting the role of feedback effects as well as the nature and extent of extra-regional influences on an economy in response to an additional stimulus. This is a contribution that, to our best knowledge, has not yet appeared in the literature. Our results suggest that both the North and the South have become less pollution-intensive (technique effect) over the years. Interestingly and in contrast to much of the literature, we also find support to the hypothesis that the South has specialized in relatively more pollution-intensive activities (composition effect).     

Disentangling the Role of Management Control Systems for Product and Process Innovation in Different Contexts

ABSTRACT

This paper studies the relationship between the use of management control systems and different types of innovation (product and process), taking into account innovation contexts (high-tech versus low-tech sectors). We develop and test our hypotheses based on a large sample of Spanish manufacturing firms and find that input controls have a positive association only with process innovation in both innovation contexts. Behavior controls have similar effects on both types of innovation outcomes for high-tech firms, while they have stronger positive associations with process than with product innovation for low-tech firms. Output controls are equally relevant for product and process innovation in both contexts.     

DISTRIBUTIONAL INVARIANCE AND THE DESIGN OF SAMS

The decomposition of a matrix multiplier derived from a social accounting matrix (SAM) by Pyatt and Round [(1979). Accounting and Fixed Price Multipliers in a Social Accounting Matrix Framework. Economic Journal, 89, 850–873] has prompted a number of subsequent applications. In one of the earliest examples Stone [(1985). The Disaggregation of the Household Sector in the National Accounts, Chapter 8. In: G. Pyatt and J.I. Round (eds.) Social Accounting Matrices: A Basis for Planning. Washington, DC, The World Bank, 145–185] made the intriguing observation that the higher order (circular) effects of an exogenous change in final demand on the distribution of income and the structure of production were more or less independent of the sectoral composition of the initial injection. Our initial objective in this article is to explore this phenomenon of distributional invariance and to derive sufficient conditions for it. We then argue that these conditions have important implications for the design of SAMs, for the taxonomies they adopt and for levels of disaggregation, all of which strongly condition the quality of results that can be generated via subsequent modelling.     

Industrial Structures and Economic Growth: an Input–Output Perspective

The slow-down of economic growth in European countries in recent years raises important economic policyissues. Most economic observers consider that the reasons for the slow-down are structural and are to be found in rigidities on the markets of primary factors or lack of technological innovative capabilities. Input–Output analysis can provide valuable insights into the nature of the phenomenon, and could help to design structural policies in order to foster economic growth.