The experience of intermediate steel-industry suppliers in the Pittsburgh region offers valuable insight into how traditional industrial clusters can serve as a source of economic resilience in regions like Pittsburgh, where a “signature” industry contracts or relocates. The authors find that intermediate steel-industry suppliers in Pittsburgh remain an important part of the region's economic base, serving as a significant source of export income from national and international markets. Survey results offer a description of the cluster's characteristics. An important subset of firms in this cluster relies on key contacts in the region such as suppliers, partners, and business networks for collaboration on product development or marketing. By recognizing and supporting local linkages of these kinds, policy initiatives can help to strengthen such clusters and contribute to a region's economic resilience.
An interindustry model relating gross output to the availability of primary inputs is used to examine supply linkages associated with national energy production. The results of calculations for US data highlight the importance of extractive energy sectors in intermediate production, and identify supplying sectors that have the potential of restricting energy output. The use of this model as a means to simulate the impact of alternative energy-allocation programmes on gross output is discussed and the results of one simulation are presented.
This paper reports an evaluation of the econometric model developed by Regional Econometric Models Inc. for the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The analysis is focused on the in-sample performance, forecasting ability, and characteristics in impact analysis of the model. The trade-offs implicit in the performance of this model relate directly to questions of explanatory power. In particular, the model is characterized by well-specified structural equations that enhance its ability to formulate policy-relevant simulations. This may come at the cost of predictive ability in a statistical sense. Choices related to this trade-off are at the heart of applied regional analysis.
Ten new steel plants were constructed in the United States from 1989 to 2001, each taking advantage of new steel slab casting technologies that gave scrap-based minimills access to the flat-products market. This market had been served previously exclusively by ore-based integrated mills. Some of the new minimills were built in established steel industry agglomerations. Others were built in greenfield locations with little or no prior steelmaking activity. This research, based on direct observation and plant visits, brings new evidence to bear on the nature and importance of agglomeration economies associated with steel production by analyzing industry clusters related to the advent of slab casting by steel minimills. The authors find that industry clusters can play an important role in the process of market entry; however, certain product and firm characteristics can shape the nature of industry agglomerations and their effect on firms and regions.
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