Intersectoral Linkages Research Articles

Network analysis of inter-sectoral relationships and key sectors in the Greek economy

The rapidly growing theories of networks and complex systems have been recently adopted to interpret the efficiency and robustness of various economic markets. Based on these theoretical underpinnings, the present paper describes a structural input–output analysis of the inter-sectoral linkages and main activity clusters of the Greek economy, which is modeled as a complex network. Such an analysis employs suitable network metrics to measure the centrality and influence of each sector-agent on the other ones, and the possibilities for clustering of related (groups of) activities. Key sectors related to the production of tradable goods and services are identified, in terms of their marginal ability to pull the total economic activity. Critical sectors are also determined in terms of their ability to retain the interconnectivity and strengthen the stability of the whole economic system. It is argued that more synergies within and among the activity clusters, through the creation of integrated value chains, would allow better coordination of policies, more efficient allocation of resources and enhanced diffusion of knowledge.

Urban governance and the systems approaches to health-environment co-benefits in cities.

The term "co-benefits" refers to positive outcomes accruing from a policy beyond the intended outcome, often or usually in other sectors. In the urban context, policies implemented in particular sectors (such as transport, energy or waste) often generate multiple co-benefits in other areas. Such benefits may be related to the reduction of local or global environmental impacts and also extend into the area of public health. A key to identifying and realising co-benefits is the adoption of systems approaches to understand inter-sectoral linkages and, in particular, the translation of this understanding to improved sector-specific and city governance. This paper reviews a range of policies which can yield health and climate co-benefits across different urban sectors and illustrates, through a series of cases, how taking a systems approach can lead to innovations in urban governance which aid the development of healthy and sustainable cities.

Linkages of the energy sector in the Greek economy: an input-output approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to reveal the dynamics of the Greek energy sector. As energy sectors contribute substantially to a national economy and stimulate national output and employment, it is important to identify their upward and downward linkages and interrelations with the other sectors of the economy. Design/methodology/approach To do this and capture such relations in the economy, a general equilibrium model is used. In specific, input–output (I–O) analysis is used and a model is specifically built for the Greek economy to examine in detail the energy sectors. Multiplier and linkage analysis is performed to assess their dynamics in terms of output, household income and employment. Findings Results indicate that the three energy sectors’ multipliers and elasticities, though are not ranking in the first places, are enough high indicating their strong linkages in the economy and their potentials to enhance the economy’s total output, employment and household income. Research limitations/implications Further disaggregation of the economy’s energy sectors is needed to make clearer the separation among renewable and non-renewable sector, to identify and compare the dynamics and contribution of each category in the economy. Additionally, an environmental I–O model would indicate consequences on the environment and not just pure economic benefits. Practical implications Through the analysis, it can be seen that energy sectors and secondary energy products have the ability to drive a country’s economic activity through exports and intersectoral linkages, even if it is not a crude petroleum producing economy. Thus, knowledge of the economic impacts of such sectors is a valuable information. Originality/value The current study provides significant information of an economy’s energy sectors regarding their ability to support economic activity and employment. A general equilibrium model is used, examining the whole economy, to assess direct and indirect interrelationships.

ADEQUACY OF FUNDING AND MAINSTREAMING SUPPORT FOR OVC IN PUBLIC NURSERY SCHOOLS IN NYERI CENTRAL SUB COUNTRY, KENYA; ADDRESSING CONSTRAINTS AND POLICY

The goal of expanding educational opportunity for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) is extricably linked to the amount of funding invested in education to maximise student learning and participation. Deprivation of interventions during the early years results in lifelong deficiencies and disadvantages. Therefore, substantial disparities in the amount of funding in Public Nursery Schools (PNS) may cause substantial disparities in the quality of educational opportunities for OVC. The amount of funding provided in PNS influences the specific instructional, curricular and psychological components necessary to deliver national education standards in PNS. Provision of special attention to mitigate barriers that impede OVC access to equal benefit with all children involves adequate funding to establish and sustain support structures in schools. The purpose of this study was to find out the influence of adequacy of finance on main streaming support for OVC in PNS in Nyeri Central Sub-county. The study employed a descriptive survey design with a sample of 19 PNS. Data was collected through questionnaires for head teachers and preschool teachers and an interview with the District Centre for Early Childhood Education (DICECE) programme officer. The study found out that inadequacy of funds for OVC support compromised continuity of OVC, continuous staff development, staff motivation and allocation of funds to support structures such as feeding programmes and provision of bursary funds. To avert this crisis the study recommends that the Ministry of Education in Kenya, the Children’s Department and NGO’s should increase intersectoral linkages for more budgetary allocations to ECE . More so funds specifically earmarked for OVC support could mitigate the challenges experienced by OVC in preschools.

Highways, local economic structure and urban development

Transport costs are widely considered as a key driver of competitive advantage of countries, regions and cities. Their relevance is even greater when scale economies are at work since production is concentrated and goods must be shipped. Recent literature has found that highways, by decreasing transport costs, are crucial in influencing agglomeration economies and ultimately urban development. In this article, we contribute to this literature by studying the effect of highway construction on the structure of local economies. In particular, we consider the effect of highways in Italian cities in terms of firm location by explicitly recognizing the pivotal role played by the transport sector and by intersectoral linkages in promoting development. The main research hypothesis is that the location of an highway exit in a given city attracts firms operating in the transport service sector and consequently transport-intensive firms. Our empirical evidence concerns Italian cities over the period 1951–2001 and exploits variation in employment, population and plants induced by the construction of the highway network. To deal with the endogeneity of the geography of highways exits, we propose as an instrument the geography of Roman roads. To this end, we have coded the whole network of Roman roads in Italy. We have found that the location of highway exits increases employment and the number of plants and that this growth is concentrated in transport service-intensive sectors. This result is robust to a number of checks, including eventual instrument non-validity and selection into treatment.

Brasil como horizonte: una propuesta de transformación productiva para Colombia

Bajo el supuesto de que los países pueden seguir un proceso de transformación estructural caracterizado por la diversificación productiva y la sofisticación tecnológica, se toma la economía brasilera como guía para revelar los desarrollos sectoriales de Colombia que tendrían un mayor impacto sobre su integración económica intersectorial. Para lograr este cometido, se construye una matriz insumo-producto para cada país con 35 sectores económicos comparables. Ello implica un trabajo de agregación sectorial que tiene en cuenta las metodologías de las cuentas nacionales de cada país. Con estas matrices comparables se deducen entonces los sectores económicos que más incrementarían los eslabonamientos intersectoriales de Colombia (y la densidad de la matriz insumo-producto de Colombia). Este análisis es importante porque, de acuerdo con algunos análisis estructuralistas, la densidad de la red de eslabonamientos intersectoriales de un país se relaciona directamente con su nivel de ingreso (efecto de nivel) y su dinámica económica (efecto de crecimiento).

An Analysis of the Potential of Manufacturing and Services Sectors as Drivers of Economic Growth and Development in Namibia

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the potential of the manufacturing and services sectors as drivers of economic growth in Namibia. The paper uses the intersectoral linkage analysis method to identify the industries with the greatest backward and forward linkages. The economy-wide impact of these industries is simulated further using a CGE model. The greatest backward linkages for manufacturing industries were found in meat processing, fish processing, grain milling, basic metals and construction. The greatest backward linkages for the tertiary industries were found in trade and repairs, hotels and restaurants, finance and insurance, and other private services. The greatest forward linkages for manufacturing industries were found in paper and printing, chemicals and rubber, fabricated metals and machinery, and electricity generation and distribution. The greatest forward linkages for tertiary industries were found in transport, communication, finance and insurance, and market real estate and business services. These, therefore, are the sectors that policies could target as they have greatest impact and could enable Namibia to achieve higher levels of growth. Further, simulation results are obtained from a CGE model by introducing direct exogenous increases in the output of the perceived key industries and examining the economy-wide feedback effects.

Does Mining FDI Crowd in Other Investments? Investigation of FDI Intersectoral Linkages

This paper analyzes whether mining FDI ‘crowds in’ or ‘out’ FDI in other sectors via intersectoral linkages. It utilizes a novel data set covering an unbalanced panel of sector-disaggregated FDI flows for 70 countries during the period from 1985 to 2010. Results show differential effects of mining FDI on FDI in other sectors (manufacturing, financial services, non-financial services) and across country groups. Some of the most interesting results are seen in the high-income countries group, where mining FDI is observed to have a crowding-out effect on financial services FDI, and in the lower middle-income countries group, where mining FDI is observed to crowd in both manufacturing and financial services FDI.

Measuring CO2 emission linkages with the hypothetical extraction method (HEM)

The issue of CO2 emission has become a major issue causing greater concern to the global economies due to its potential environmental effects and impact on climate change. In order to address this issue and mitigate its harmful effects on the environment, it is imperative to reduce CO2 emission drastically and fairly quickly. In this paper we have been focusing on alternative linkage methodologies for measuring CO2 emission, which entails linkages among the productive sectors in an economy. Methods, dealing with inter-sectoral carbon linkage measures can be summarized into two main categories, i.e. (a) the concept of traditional backward and forward linkages and (b) hypothetical extraction method (HEM). The (HEM) method is used to hypothetically extract a sector from an economic system and examine the influence of this extraction on other sectors in an economy. In this study we will evolve the environmentally extended input–output model to measure the CO2 emission linkages among the productive sectors in Italy using data obtained in 2011. Using the HEM method, the backward linkage emission and forward linkage emission are calculated to characterize the behavior of these sectors. The results obtained from these measures will enable us to formulate hypothesis about the direction and strength of the relationship between various linkages and will also indicate which key CO2 emitter sector measures are most similar and which are most dissimilar. According to the size of the various linkage measures, all sectors of the economy can be grouped into four categories. These measures allow us to examine and identify those sectors, which deserve more consideration in formulating mitigation policies.

Measuring the Size of the Renewable Resource Sector: The Case of Chile

As a percentage of national gross domestic product (GDP), farming is typically small in middle‐income and wealthier countries. But national accounts include only on‐farm activities, giving both the public and policymakers an impression that the food sector is a minor actor in the economy. Much of past development literature, using household expenditures, considered that farming generated few positive externalities, with few backward and forward linkages to other sectors, inviting the conclusion that stimulating agriculture was a low priority to boost economic development, especially in Latin America. Using national accounts, this study employs a concept of an expanded value added to capture agricultures intersectoral linkages, yielding a more useful measure of sector size. In the case of Chile, the expanded primary sector's contribution is approximately double that of simple national accounts, with forward links far exceeding backward. A more refined division of labor and economic specialization, perhaps enhanced by trade openness, appears to explain in part agriculture's declining share in national GDP and the growth of sectoral linkages.

The competent demand pull hypothesis: which sectors do play a role?

The paper investigates intersectoral linkages between manufacturing and services under the competent demand pull hypothesis. This hypothesis postulates that the demand pulls the innovative capacities of the suppliers only when and if they are accompanied by qualified knowledge interactions with creative customers. We empirically investigate this hypothesis based on the sector-level data of nineteen (manufacturing and service) sectors in fifteen EU countries over the period 1995–2007. We adopt the input–output framework to assess the strength of the inter-sectoral intermediate goods transactions. Our main findings confirm that demand actually pulls technological change only when it comes from competent customers able to implement effective user-producer knowledge interactions. The results stress the relevance of the transactions-cum-knowledge interactions between the knowledge intensive business service sectors and the manufacturing industries.

Water Flows in the Economy. An Input-Output Framework to Assess Water Productivity in the Castile and Leen Region (Spain)

Traditionally, water policy has focused on coordinating the public effort required to fuel economic growth by supplying water services demanded as a result of the progress in the many areas of the economy. Under this supply-oriented paradigm, population growth and the improvement of living standards brought about by development have driven water demand up and the pressures over water resources have escalated. The failure to acknowledge the limited availability of water and to decouple economic development from water demand has resulted in a water dependent growth model that in many areas is currently threatened by increasing scarcity and more frequent and intense droughts. Consequently, there is an urgent need to use sparse water resources in a sustainable and efficient way. This demands a comprehensive assessment of water productivity dynamics as well as of the linkages among economic sectors in order to calculate the actual costs of eventual water reallocations to the environment and establish priorities in the design of strategic actions such as river basin or drought management plans. However, available studies only offer static analyses that are insufficient to attain the dual objective of reverting current water scarcity trends without impairing economic growth. This paper develops a methodology based on the Hypothetical Extraction Method to estimate inter-temporal indirect (i.e., including intersectoral linkages) water productivity values. The method is applied in the Spanish region of Castile and Leon for the period 2000-2006. The intensive use and the low water productivity found for agriculture confirms the intuition that this sector has to play a fundamental role in any water saving policy. However, the relevant linkages between agriculture and the rest of the economy, which acts as an indirect consumer of water for irrigation, may complicate the finding of a Pareto improvement in water allocation. Results also show increasing returns to scale in the manufacturing industry and the service sector, which may be regarded as an evidence of the existence of a Verdoorn’s Law for water.

Intersectoral policy for severe and persistent mental illness: review of approaches in a sample of high-income countries.

It is increasingly recognised that intersectoral linkages between mental health and other health and support sectors are essential for providing effective care for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness. The extent to which intersectoral collaboration and approaches to achieve it are detailed in mental health policy has not yet been systematically examined. Thirty-eight mental health policy documents from 22 jurisdictions in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada were identified via a web search. Information was extracted and synthesised on: the extent to which intersectoral collaboration was an objective or guiding principle of policy; the sectors acknowledged as targets for collaboration; and the characteristics of detailed intersectoral collaboration efforts. Recurring themes in objectives/guiding principles included a whole of government approach, coordination and integration of services, and increased social and economic participation. All jurisdictions acknowledged the importance of intersectoral collaboration, particularly with employment, education, housing, community, criminal justice, drug and alcohol, physical health, Indigenous, disability, emergency and aged care services. However, the level of detail provided varied widely. Where detailed strategies were described, the most common linkage mechanisms were joint service planning through intersectoral coordinating committees or liaison workers, interagency agreements, staff training and joint service provision. Sectors and mechanisms identified for collaboration were largely consistent across jurisdictions. Little information was provided about strategies for accountability, resourcing, monitoring and evaluation of intersectoral collaboration initiatives, highlighting an area for further improvement. Examples of collaboration detailed in the policies provide a useful resource for other countries.

Does Skill-Biased Technical Change Diffuse Internationally?

This paper studies the question whether skill-biased technical change diffuses internationally and that way contributes to the increasing relative skill demand in other countries. So far, the role of skill-biased technology diffusion has hardly been studied empirically. Using new sectoral data for a panel of 40 emerging and developed countries, 30 industries (covering manufacturing and service industries) and 13 years (1995-2007), the analysis shows that skill-biased technology diffusion is statistically and economically important in explaining skill-biased technical change. Countries further away from the skill-specific technological frontier subsequently show higher skill-specific productivity growth. For that, the bilateral distance between two countries proves to be an important mediating factor, whereas intersectoral trade linkages, so far, explain only a small part of it. The main results hold for both, developed and emerging countries.

Challenges and opportunities for implementing an intersectoral approach in malaria control in Tanzania.

Malaria is a complex health problem related to socio-economic and environmental factors that cut across a number of sectors. Establishing intersectoral linkages is important to facilitate joint efforts to address the problem at all levels. The objectives of this study were to explore key sectoral engagements in malaria control policy formulation and implementation, and to determine decision and policy makers’ opinions about different sectoral activities that contribute to malaria transmission and control in Tanzania. This study included documentary review, self-administered interviews and group discussion. Interviews and group discussions involved key informants at district and national levels. The sectors involved were health, agriculture, environment, livestock, fisheries, education, works, irrigation, water resources, land development, forestry, and community development. Institutions and organizations that were involved in the development of the previous and current National Malaria Strategic Plan (2007-2013 and 2013-2020) were the Ministries of Health and Social Welfare, Prime Minister’s Office of Regional Administration and Local Government, Public universities and non-governmental organizations. All the individuals involved in the development of the plans were either medical or health professionals. According to key informants, sectoral activities identified to contribute to malaria transmission included farming systems, deforestation, fishing, nomadic pastoralism, household water storage, water resource development projects, road and house construction and mining. The lack of intersectoral approaches in malaria control programme included the facts that the Health Sector does not involve other sectors during planning and development of policy guidelines, differences in sectoral mandates and management culture, lack of a national coordinating framework and lack of budget for intersectoral activities. The current strategies for malaria control in Tanzania need to address socio-economic and development activities across sectors and emphasise the need for intersectoral collaboration. It is recommended that the future of malaria control strategies should, therefore, be broad based and intersectoral in planning and implementation.

Changing Inter-Sectoral Linkages: Role of Technology Adoption in Agricultural Growth

The paper has examined the changes in inter-sectoral relations as driven by the sectoral shares and sectoral growth patterns, and has traced the nature of linkages between agriculture and the rest of the economy in the changing context. The relation between use of technological inputs in agriculture and employment encompasses the socio-economic and technical links between inputs and outputs. In this context, the paper has examined by means of a case study, the role of bio-chemical technology in raising crop productivity and net incomes of farmers. Increasing output and profitability in the agriculture sector are the necessary precursors for strengthening the linkages between agriculture and the rest of the economy. The adoption of herbicide-tolerant (HT) technology has been found to reduce the cost of production through lower expenditure on herbicides, labour, machinery and fuel, despite charging of technology fees on the seeds. In this context, the paper has assessed the potential impact on agricultural productivity and net profits through the introduction of technology, viz., herbicide-tolerant (HT) cotton in sample farms across Gujarat. The findings based on secondary analysis and evidence based on a case study have categorically indicated the need for greater farm mechanization coupled with introduction of technologies that are labour saving if agricultural productivity has to be maintained and stepped up. Such an outcome would no doubt enhance agriculture-industry linkages in the production process and would also have favourable income effects giving a further boost to agriculture and industry.

A Note on the Flaws of MFA (Minimal Flow Analysis)

MFA (Minimal Flow Analysis) is a method of qualitative input-output analysis used for identifying national of regional industrial clusters. It is based on the analysis of layers (in an input-output model, flow matrices generated at each iteration toward equilibrium). We show through theory that all normalized layers (column-coefficient matrices computed from each layer) are equal in MFA. This is illustrated by an application to France's 2009 input-output table. Therefore, the information brought by one layer is identical to those of another layer: layers bring no specific information, which unfortunately implies that MFA is not a good tool to study intersectoral linkages, despite the interesting character of the topic.

Linkage analysis of sectoral CO2 emissions based on the hypothetical extraction method in South Africa

As one of the top carbon emitters in Africa, South Africa has received tremendous pressure to reduce carbon emissions. Issues related to energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in South Africa have thus far been widely studied. However, the carbon linkage caused by the intermediate trade among industrial sectors has typically been ignored. This study integrates the environmental input–output model with modified hypothetical extraction method to investigate the carbon linkage among sectors. Based on the data of South Africa in 2005, this study empirically estimates the linkages of CO2 emissions involved in the industrial sectors and the carbon effects of inter-sector linkages. Results show that the total carbon linkage of industrial systems in South Africa in 2005 is 171.32 million tons (Mt), which accounts for 81.58 Mt total backward carbon linkage and 89.71 Mt total forward carbon linkage. The industrial block of electricity, gas, and water has the largest total carbon linkage and internal and net forward effect, and the block of basic metal, coke, and refined petroleum products has the largest net backward effect. The potential policy implications on energy consumption and reduction of CO2 emissions deduced from this numerical study are also discussed.

Input–output-based measures of systemic importance

The analyses of intersectoral linkages of Leontief [The Structure of the American Economy: 1919–1929, 1941] and Hirschman [The Strategy of Economic Development, 1958] provide a natural way to study the transmission of risk among interconnected banks and to measure their systemic importance. In this paper, we show how elements from classic input–output analysis can be applied to banking and how to derive six indicators that capture different aspects of systemic importance, using a simple numerical example for illustration. We also discuss the relationship with other approaches, most notably network centrality measures, both formally and by means of a simulated network.

System-level intersectoral linkages between the mental health and non-clinical support sectors: a qualitative systematic review.

Concerns about fragmented mental health service delivery persist, particularly for people with severe and persistent mental illness. The objective was to review evidence regarding outcomes attributed to system-level intersectoral linkages involving mental health services and non-clinical support services, and to identify barriers and facilitators to the intersectoral linkage process. A systematic, qualitative review of studies describing attempts to coordinate the activities of multiple service agencies at the policy, program or organisational level was conducted. Electronic databases Medline, PsycINFO and EMBASE were searched via OVID from inception to July 2012. Of 1593 studies identified, 40 were included in the review - 26 in adult and 14 in vulnerable youth populations. Identified mechanisms to promote positive system-level outcomes included: interagency coordinating committees or intersectoral/interface workers engaged in joint service planning; formalised interagency collaborative agreements; a single care plan in which the responsibilities of all agencies are described; cross-training of staff to ensure staff culture, attitudes, knowledge and skills are complementary; service co-location; and blended funding initiatives to ensure funding aligns with program integration. Identified barriers included: adequacy of funding and technology; ensuring realistic workloads; overcoming 'turf issues' between service providers and disagreements regarding areas of responsibility; ensuring integration strategies are implemented as planned; and maintaining stakeholder enthusiasm. System-level intersectoral linkages can be achieved in various ways and are associated with positive clinical and non-clinical outcomes for services and clients. Some linkage mechanisms present greater implementation challenges than others (e.g. major technology upgrades or co-location in geographically remote areas). In some instances (e.g. co-location) alternative options may achieve equivalent benefits. Publication bias could not be discounted, and studies using high-quality research designs are scarce. The limited information base applicable to system-level integration argues strongly for the evaluation of the models that evolve in the rollout of the national Partners in Recovery initiative.