Linkages and Multipliers in a Multiregional Framework: Integration of Alternative Approaches

In this paper, two literatures that have explored the structure of economies are brought together. In the first case, the approaches to key sector identification (initially associated with Hirschman and Rasmussen) that were modified by Cella, Clements and Rossi and Guilhoto et al. to reveal what may be referred to a pure linkage approach are related to the concerns of Miyazawa and his identification of internal and external multiplier effects. While Miyazawa was interested mainly in identifying the sources of change in an economy, his approach shares considerable commonality with the new ideas in key sector identification in which a sector or set of sectors are separated from the rest of the economy. Hence, in both cases, a decomposition of the economy needs to be considered; the present paper reveals the similarity of perspective and provides the formal link between the two methodologies.