Regional input-output analysis: application on rural regions in Germany, the Czech Republic and Greece

While agriculture definitely is a traditional and important sector of national economy, it is also a sector the importance of which is often underestimated. More correct and realistic description of its economic role should be based on input-output methods. Unfortunately regional level input-output tables are only rarely available. We therefore apply modified GRIT regionalization methodology on a remote rural NUTS 2 level region in three different countries (Germany, Greece, and the Czech Republic respectively) and demonstrate that this approach makes regional-level input-output analysis a viable tool in realistic evaluation of contribution of the agri-food production chain for local economies. We provide empirical results that enable us to describe the importance of regional role of agriculture (both individually and in combination with down-stream sectors) more realistically. Our research based on application of regional level input-output methods clearly demonstrates that the importance of agri-food production chain especially for remote regions remains very high – even for heavily industrialized countries - and its demise would lead to dramatic structural shocks.