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.