Sectoral and spatial linkages in the EC production structure

This paper provides a description of the interdependencies in the production structure of the European Community (EC). For the measurement of these interdependencies, a new variant of the hypothetical extraction method is introduced. In contrast to earlier adaptations of this method, our approach allows for a natural distinction of the interdependencies into backward and forward linkages. The empirical results are based on the 1980 intercountry input-output table for seven countries of the EC. The nature of this type of data (viz. country-specific sectors) enables us to focus on the sectoral as well as the spatial dimension of the interdependencies.