Alternative Approaches of Physical Input–Output Analysis to Estimate Primary Material Inputs of Production and Consumption Activities

Abstract

In the last few years, a number of studies have been presented that link material flow accounting and input–output analysis (based on monetary input–output tables) for the calculation of direct and indirect resource inputs for production and consumption activities. The compilation of the first physical input–output tables for some European countries in the 1990s opened new possibilities for linking physical accounting and input–output analysis. Physical input–output analysis has so far only been applied for selected materials, but it has not been used for comprehensive assessments of material requirements of economic activities. In this paper, possibilities and limits of this new input–output approach are clarified. We present and discuss a procedure similar to monetary input–output analysis and develop an alternative approach to account for primary inputs and waste otherwise not included in the analysis. Based on aggregated input–output tables for Germany, we present numerical examples intended to compare the alternative approaches of physical input–output analysis.