Structural Change, Intersectoral Linkages And Hollowing-Out in the Taiwanese Economy, 1976-1994

This paper analyses structural change in the Taiwanese economy over the period 1976-1994 using a series of input-output tables. Unlike other studies of structural change, this analysis investigates the evolving internal complexity of intersectoral interdependencies using Key Sector Analysis which gauges the strength of forward and backward linkages, and the recently developed method of Minimal Flow Analysis, which gauges the degree of connectivity of the system. This analysis indicates that there has been a "hollowing-out" of the Taiwanese economy as the density of intersectoral linkages has declined since the early 1980s, similar to what has been observed of the US and Japanese economies at a much later stage of their development.