Estimating the Effects of Economic Interactions in a Hierarchically Organized Space: Possibilities of the Balance Method
In this paper we discuss the capabilities of input-output tables for obtaining the estimates of system effects generated by interregional interactions in the hierarchically organized space. Two options of integrating the concepts of interregional interactions and central place are presented, one of which implies the a priori, the other - the a posteriori solution to the problem of identifying (constructing) a market hierarchy. While the first one is used only in situations when the system effects are reduced to the spill-over of economic activity from the periphery to the center, the second one is used in more general situations when the system effects include not only spill-over effects but also the feedback effects. We consider the feedback loop input-output analysis, which allows us to get a posteriori estimates of regions distribution by the levels of spatial hierarchy. And determine that it had varying effectiveness for the cases of Japan and Russia. In accordance with the existing methods of decomposition of spatial multipliers the system effects of interregional interactions are determined, on the one hand, as a residual multiplier effect obtained after identifying the effects of intra-regional interactions, on the other hand, as a result of superposition of the effects of interregional interactions within the framework of dyads, triads, tetrads, etc. composed of regions. In order to obtain estimates of the system effects generated by interactions on markets of different levels (provided that these levels are identified), we propose the method of localizable partition, organizing the calculation of the structural blocks of spatial multipliers in the ‘from the general to the particular’ logic (from the system effects of interactions on the national market to the effects of interactions on local markets). On the basis of this method, we estimate the size and structure of the system effects absorbed by the economies of the three central regions of Japan (Kanto, Chubu, Kinki), which form the core of the national economic space