The choice of model in the construction of industry coefficients matrices

Kop Jansen and ten Raa’s (1990) characterization of product-by-product input–output tables was adopted by the United Nations (1993). Recent OECD and several EU funded projects, however, used industry-by-industry tables, which raises comparable issues concerning their construction. We show how their two main construction models are instances of the transfer principle, with alternative assumptions on the variation of input–output coefficients across product markets. We augment the theory by formulating desirable properties for industry tables and investigate the so-called fixed product and fixed industry sales structure models, which are used by statistical institutes. The fixed industry sales structure model is shown to be superior from an axiomatic point of view.