Interdependence, linkages and multipliers in Asia: an international input-output analysis

This paper uses a set of international input-output tables constructed for selected Asian countries (and the USA) for the years of 1975 and 1985 to compare sectoral and intercountry changes over this decade. The analysis makes use of a framework developed by Guilhoto, Hewings, and Sonis (1996) where two literatures that have explored the structure of economics are combined, namely, approaches to key sector identification presented by Guilhoto et al. (1994) to reveal what may be referred to a pure linkage approach and the concerns of Miyazawa and his identification of internal and external multiplier effects. While Miyazawa was interested mainly in identifying the sources of change in an economy, his approach shares considerable commonality with the new ideas in key sector identification in which a sector or set of sectors are separated from the rest of the economy. The results reveal the importance of employing alternative measures of structure and structural change but the overall pattern of greater regional integration is readily apparent, paralleling findings for the European Union.