INNOVATIONS IN AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURING IN SELECTED EU COUNTRIES: A STUDY BASED ON INPUT-OUTPUT TABLES

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse patterns of innovations in Agricultural and agro-based industries (like agricultural products, food products, textiles, leather, paper, publishing and printing), Mineral based industries (like chemicals, rubber and plastic products, basic metals, fabricated metals) and Machinery including electrical machinery, electronic goods and communications equipment, and transport vehicles industries in selected EU countries, namely France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain and United Kingdom based on input-output tables for the period between 1995 and 2005. Out of the fourteen sectors that we have studied, two sectors namely chemicals and electrical machinery industries witnessed an increase in intermediate consumption in all the six countries between 1995 and 2005. Motor vehicles & trailers, basic metals, rubber & plastic products experienced a rise in intermediate consumption in five out of six countries. For the other sectors one cannot find a clear trend. A comparison across countries would reveal that Germany, Italy and Spain witnessed increase in input use per unit output value in the majority of the sectors – out of 14 sectors it increased in 11. The number of sectors raising intermediate consumption is 9 in France, 7 in Portugal and 6 in the UK. Finally some conclusions were presented comparing sectors and countries in terms innovation pattern and its relation with their competitiveness position.