Abstract
Economists triangulate input-output tables in order to find a predominant direction in the interindustrial movement of goods and services. Typically, industries, such as Mining, which are far removed from Final Demand, are situated at one end of the input-output table after rearrangement. At the other end are industries that produce for Final Demand, such as Food and Automobiles. Triangulation yields a linear ordering of industries. Much greater detail than this on the complex directionalities of interindustrial flows is presented here. The maximum flow minimum cut algorithm of network flow theory is employed to identify production and consumption complexes. These are relatively self-contained blocks of industries. In each block, there is one industry — the node of the complex — whose total production (consumption) is greater than the amount produced (consumed) by all members of the collection for (from) non-members. Many production complexes have as their nodes primary industries — ones that would be situated near one end of the table after triangulation — and as their other members Final Demand-oriented industries — ones that would be located near the other end. If there arem industries in an input-output table, ann-member production complex is composed of one nodal industry with total output,P, and (n−1) other industries, which together as then-member complex sell less thanP to the (m−n) other industries. 200 production and 42 consumption complexes of the most highly detailed version of the 1967 U.S. input-output table available are presented.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Carter, A.P.: Structural Change in the American Economy. Harvard 1970.
Ford, L.R., andD.R. Fulkerson: Flows in Network. Princeton 1962.
Hubert, L.J.: Seriation Using Asymmetric Proximity Measures. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology29, 1976, 32–52.
Input-Output Structure of the U.S. Economy: 1967. U.S. Department of Commerce, 1974.
Korte, B., andW. Oberhofer: Triangularizing Input-Output Matrices and the Structure of Production. European Economic Review1, 1969–70, 482–511.
Lawler, C.L.: Cutsets and Partitions of Hypergraphs. Networks3, 1973, 275–285.
Nijenhuis, A., andH. Wilf: Combinatorial Algorithms. New York 1975, Chapter 18.
Slater, P.B.: A Multiterminal Network-Flow Analysis of an Unadjusted Spanish Interprovincial Migration Table. Environment and PlanningA 8, 1976.
—: The Determination of Groups of Functionally Integrated Industries in the United States Using a 1967 Interindustry Flow Table. Empirical Economics2, 1977, 1–9.
Standard Industrial Classification Manual. Statistical Policy Division, Office of Management and Budget, 1972.
The Input-Output Structure of the U.S. Economy: 1967. Survey of Current Business54, 1974, 24–56.
Weil, R.L.: The Decomposition of Economic Production Systems. Econometrica36, 1968, 260–278.
Wolfram, R.O.C.: Input-Output and Throughput. 1975, 110–112.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The National Science Foundation provided funds for the acquisition of the data studied, and the West Virginia University Computer Center substantial support for its analysis. W.F. Gossling provided suggestions for a revision of the paper. Discussions of this paper and a previousEmpirical Economics paper by the author will appear inInput-Output & Marketing [1978].
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Slater, P. The network structure of the United States input-output table. Empirical Economics 3, 49–70 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01764564
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01764564