STUDIES ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SHIKOKU REGION FROM THE STANDPOINT OF CONSTRUCTION OF BRIDGE OVER AKASHI STRAIT

Abstract

It is the most important to construct the bridge over the Akashi Strait to enhance the industrial structure of the Shikoku Region, which will further tie the Hanshin Metropolitan Region in with the Shikoku Region as Hanshin's vast hinterland in Western Japan, and will improve the circulation of goods and people within that great region.The authors dealt with the future economic plan of the Shikoku Region from the viewpoint of the construction of bridge over the Akashi Strait. Therefore, a so-called Regional Input-Output Model Analysis and an Econometric Model Analysis were introduced to predict the economic structure of the Shikoku Region.In order to calculate the increment of total output in the Shikoku Region to comply with structural change of interregional trade in the Econometric Model Analysis, due to the construction of the Bridge, interregional shipment and importation of goods and services were set as exogenous variables.Through the above procedure, it was made clear that the construction of bridge over the Akashi strait was very efficient to economic development of the Shikoku Region.