The network structure of the United States input-output table

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.