Comparative Analysis of China’s Metropolitan Economies: An Input-Output Perspective

Recently, Jensen et al. (1988a, 1988b) have provided arguments in support of the development of a taxonomy of economies based upon their structure as reflected in input-output tables or social accounting matrices. A review of the relevant literature revealed that there was considerable confusion about the term ‘economic structure’ and even less agreement about appropriate ways to describe and interpret it. This chapter provides a modest step in extending the discussion by focusing attention on ways in which the economic structure of four major metropolitan regions in China could be compared using a set of consistently developed input-output tables. The methodology builds upon work recently completed (Sonis and Hewings, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992) that has attempted to explore a wide range of approaches to structure, structural change and structural decomposition, with a particular focus on the ways in which these approaches could be interpreted with input-output and social accounting systems.