The Position of Agriculture and Food Sector in V4 Countries

Abstract

Input-output tables are a simple tool, used for studying the structure of economies or sectors’ demand and supply linkages. The aim of this paper is to present and compare the main characteristics of 2 selected sectors in V4 countries, namely the agriculture and food sectors. The analysis is based on the input output coefficients and multipliers, used for studying input, output and import relationships. These analyses can reveal ongoing structural changes what represents an interesting topic especially for former transition economies. The objective is to verify the similarities in the position and the development of these sectors, to examine backward and forward linkages and their strength in order to identify key sectors and to measure possible concentrations of their impacts. With accordance to the previous research and general trends, we expected certain decline of importance over the period 2000-2014, especially in terms of production, employment but also in overall effects on the whole economy. This was mostly confirmed with the exception of Polish data that point out to relatively stronger domestic position of both sectors. The presented results were obtained within the Research Project VEGA/1/0961/16