Evaluating the Economic Structure of a Rural Area: Demonstration of an Input-Output Analysis

Excerpts from the report Introduction: Current emphasis on area development has exemplified the need for empirical knowledge of the interactions within and among area economies. Policymakers need to know the nature of program impacts and the possible effect of their decisions before as well as after implementation. The business community needs to know the potentials for community and area growth to make wiser investment and planning decisions. The interindustry framework provides a powerful approach to area economic structural analysis. When implemented empirically, such a framework provides an analytic data system which indicates in a consistent manner the levels of the various area economic activities as well as their economic interrelationships. The Economic Research Service is developing an extended interindustry interactions information system designed to be implemented largely with secondary data for the rapid low-cost calculation of sector interrelationships. When fully developed, the system will provide a description of economic structure which will be a useful detailed evaluation of development potentials of specific multicounty areas. A byproduct of this effort has been the construction and implementation of a simple model which illustrates many of the characteristics of the more comprehensive system. This report summarizes the results of this illustrative model as applied to a 10-county area centered around Asheville.