Applicability and limitations in the use of national input-output tables for regional studies

Abstract

It appears that although national input-output tables cannot be used for purposes of regional studies without considerable adjustments, acceptable results can be achieved by the methods tried on the Washington State table. In order to obtain acceptable results it seems important (1) to exclude the tertiary sectors through aggregation, and (2) to use field surveys in order to obtain input-output coefficients for (a) primary industries and (b) industries in which the regional economy is specialized. Price adjustments and adjustments for domestic imports do not seem to add anything to the quality of results. Neither do successive iterations after the first one.