FOREWORD
Input-Output tables are part of the Australian national accounts, complementing the quarterly and annual series of national income, expenditure and product aggregates. They provide detailed information about the supply and disposition of commodities in the Australian economy and about the structure of, and inter-relationships between, Australian industries. Detailed data on supply and use of commodities, inter-industry flows and a range of derived data, such as input-output multipliers, are provided for economic planning and analysis, and construction of models for forecasting purposes. The data can also be useful for non-economists seeking a thorough knowledge of relationships in the Australian economy.
This publication is intended to serve three main purposes. First, it provides a guide to the construction and interpretation of input-output multipliers. Second, it provides details of the way in which the input-output multiplier tables can be used. Third, it provides a means of answering some of the questions often asked by input-output practitioners. These queries tend to arise because of the types of "what if?" analysis for which input-output tables can be used (for example, what would be the impact on employment of an x% change in output by the chemical industry). This type of analysis is really dependent on a knowledge of input-output multipliers and their shortcomings. Using input-output tables, multipliers can be calculated to provide a simple means of working out the flow on effects of a change in output in an industry on one or more of imports, income, employment or output in individual industries or in total. The multipliers can show just the 'first-round' effects, or the aggregated effects once all secondary effects have flowed through the system.
