Sectoral Interdependencies and Key Sectors in the Romanian, Hungarian and Slovak Economy – An Approach Based on Input-Output Analysis

The aim of this paper is to analyse sectoral interdependencies and to identify the key sectors in the Romanian, Hungarian and Slovak economy, drawing a comparison between these three countries. In order to do these investigations, input-output analysis is applied, as it is based on a model which presents interactions between sectors of the economy. This method can also be used for determining the role of each sector in the national economy regarding its contribution to the total output, incomes, exportimport and so on, and for quantifying direct and indirect impact on the whole economy caused by any change produced in a sector’s activity. As the results of the analyses show, several similarities and differences appear in the economic structure, the sectoral interdependencies and the key sectors of the analysed countries. For example, in Romania, intersectoral transactions are axing mainly on the Trade and Manufacturing sectors, while in Hungary and Slovakia on the Manufacturing and Other professional, scientific and technical services sectors. Key sectors - identified by applying output and income backward linkages - also differ as in Romania the output backward linkage is the largest in the case of the Trade sector, in Hungary, in the Food sector and in Slovakia in the Electricity, gas, water and waste management sector. In the case of the income linkages, Social, collective and personal services rank in the first place in all three countries