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.