An Interindustry Approach to Modeling Economic-Environmental Systems

This paper reports upon a project intended to hypothesize and implement with data methods for linking input-output structures and environmental emissions in order to provide suitable means for modeling and analyzing the emissions process. The first step in the effort was to devise a materials balance accounting structure in order to provide a coherent and complete format for emissions. This accounting structure was incorporated in a set of worksheets and instructions and distributed among relevant government agencies. The data collected from this effort, with substantial internally developed data, have been used to create a simple two-stage model of the emissions process. It is recommended that this approach be enhanced through more detailed study of treatment processes in terms of materials flows and economic costs. Integration of superior treatment process data into the existing structure would permit a much more flexible, detailed, and accurate model for projection and policy analysis purposes.