Wassily Leontief

Bio: Wassily Leontief is an academic researcher from Harvard University. The author has contributed to research in topics: World economy & Goods and services. The author has an hindex of 41, co-authored 86 publications receiving 14625 citations. Previous affiliations of Wassily Leontief include University of Cambridge.

Environmental Repercussions And The Economic Structure: An Input-Output Approach

Abstract: POLLUTION is a by-product of regular economic activities. In each of its many forms it is related in a measurable way to some particular consumption or production process: The quantity of carbon monoxide released in the air bears, for example, a definite relationship to the amount of fuel burned by various types of automotive engines; the discharge of polluted water into our streams and lakes is linked directly to the level of output of the steel, the paper, the textile and all the other water-using industries and its amount depends, in each instance, on the technological characteristics of the particular industry.

Input-output economics

Abstract: The only comprehensive introduction which Leontief has written to his model of Input-Output Economics, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Science in 1972. Many of the chapters have already appeared as articles in journals, but Leontief's writings have a range and consistency that gives this collection a sense of coherence. The book begin with non-technical articles on the theory of Input-Output Economics and progresses to more technical essays, and then to specific applications of the theory. This edition has been thoroughly revised, at least one third of the material being new.

Domestic production and foreign trade: the american capital position reexamined

Abstract: COUNTRIES trade with each other because this enables them to participate in and to profit from the international division of labor. Not unlike businesses and individuals, each area specializes in those lines of economic activity to which it happens to be best suited and then trades some of its own outputs for commodities and services in the production of which other countries have a comparative advantage. The word comparative is in this connection of particular significance. The United States, for example, exports automobiles and imports newsprint. It does so because the quantity of Canadian paper which we can obtain in exchange for, say, a million dollars' worth of American cars is larger than the additional amount of newsprint which we would be able to produce at home if we withdrew the capital, labor, and other resources now absorbed in the manufacture of one million dollars' worth of automobiles and used it instead to increase the output of our domestic paper industry. Canada, for analogous but in a sense opposite reasons, finds it advantageous to obtain its automobiles from the United States in exchange for newsprint rather than to divert resources from their present employment in its paper industry into an increased domestic production of cars. This explanation of the international exchange of goods and services in terms of the comparative advantage of the alternative allocation of resources in each of the trading countries, was originally developed in the writings of David Ricardo and other so-called classical economists of the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries. It still constitutes the basis of the modern theory of international trade. The theory of comparative costs-as many other economic theories-reigns, however, in the pages of college text books without actually governing the practice of emipirical economic analysis. Until recently, we had so little systematic knowledge of the productive structure of our own or of any other national economy that the application of such general theoretical principles to the analysis and explanation of actual foreign trade relationships has been practically out of the question. M-ost of what has been said on that subject consisted of reasonable common sense conjectures or of plausible examples which-like the automobile and newsprint reference used above-serves well enough to illustrate the logic of the theoretical argument, but had hardly any specific base in detailed facts and figures.2 A widely shared view on the nature of the trade between the United States and the rest of the world is derived from what appears to be a common sense assumption that this country has a comparative advantage in the production of commodi-

The next generation of scenarios for climate change research and assessment

Abstract: Advances in the science and observation of climate change are providing a clearer understanding of the inherent variability of Earth's climate system and its likely response to human and natural influences. The implications of climate change for the environment and society will depend not only on the response of the Earth system to changes in radiative forcings, but also on how humankind responds through changes in technology, economies, lifestyle and policy. Extensive uncertainties exist in future forcings of and responses to climate change, necessitating the use of scenarios of the future to explore the potential consequences of different response options. To date, such scenarios have not adequately examined crucial possibilities, such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, and have relied on research processes that slowed the exchange of information among physical, biological and social scientists. Here we describe a new process for creating plausible scenarios to investigate some of the most challenging and important questions about climate change confronting the global community.

Trade, Location of Economic Activity and the MNE: A Search for an Eclectic Approach

Abstract: The main task of this paper is to discuss ways in which production financed by foreign direct investment, that is, that undertaken by multinational enterprises (MNEs), has affected our thinking about the international allocation of resources and the exchange of goods and services between countries. The analysis takes, as its starting point, the growing convergence between the theories of international trade and production, and argues the case for an integrated approach to international economic involvement, based both on the location-specific endowments of countries and the ownership-specific endowments of enterprises. In pursuing this approach, the paper sets out a systemic explanation of the foreign activities of enterprises, in terms of their ability to internalise markets to their advantage. It concludes with a brief examination of some of the effects which the MNE is allegedly having on the spatial allocation of resources, and on the patterns of trade between countries.

An Illustrated User Guide to the World Input-Output Database : the Case of Global Automotive Production

Abstract: This article provides guidance to prudent use of the World Input–Output Database (WIOD) in analyses of international trade. The WIOD contains annual time-series of world input–output tables and factor requirements covering the period from 1995 to 2011. Underlying concepts, construction methods and data sources are introduced, pointing out particular strengths and weaknesses. We illustrate its usefulness by analyzing the geographical and factorial distribution of value added in global automotive production and show increasing fragmentation, both within and across regions. Possible improvements and extensions to the data are discussed.