Open AccessA Preliminary Input-Output Table for Large-Scale Industries in Pakistan
Author(s) -
John C. H. Fei
Publication year - 1962
Publication title -
pakistan development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.154
H-Index - 26
ISSN - 0030-9729
DOI - 10.30541/v2i1pp.47-83
Subject(s) - table (database) , computation , production (economics) , general equilibrium theory , computer science , scale (ratio) , economics , mathematical economics , operations research , macroeconomics , mathematics , algorithm , physics , quantum mechanics , data mining
As an approach to economic problems, the input-output analysisis in the tradition of general equilibrium economics. However, it is ageneral equilibrium analysis with numerical strength. It is a generalequilibrium theory because it analyzes all the industrial sectors of theeconomy simul¬taneously with special emphasis on the productionrelations among the industries. It is an approach with numericalstrength because the basic formulation of the theory is amenable tostatistical implementation in the econometric sense. Being such, thisapproach can be, and has been, applied to provide numerical answers toproblems related to total economic mobilization of an economy, e.g., forwar, for peace or for economic development. For this reason, it has adirect policy orientation; and, can be usefully applied to planning foreconomic development. On account of the fact that it is a generalequilibrium theory with numerical strength, the input-output analysis isnot an inexpensive approach. This is due to the fact that stupendouseffort is involved in the collection and the processing of statisticaldata, for all the major production sectors, as well as in tabulation andcomputation. This is difficult even when the data are available, andwhen the data are not available, an effort in this direction is thwartedat the very initial stage. The standard reason given for not applying aninput-output approach in planning for economic development is that dataare not available. In this respect, Pakistan is a typical case. It isthe purpose of this paper to present a preliminary input-output tablefor large-scale industries in Pakistan. As the base year for table, wehave selected calendar year 1955, primarily because for this year thecensus of manufacturing industries is most detailed and most suitablefor our purpose. As far as we know, this table is the first of its kind.However, in view of the data problem, the input-output table that willbe presented is only a preliminary one. Not only does it exclude allproduction sectors