Satoshi Inomata is the Project Director of the International Input-Output Project and the Director of Microeconomic Analysis Group, Institute of Developing Economies (IDE-JETRO). He received his B.A. in Politics and Economics from the University of London and M.Sc. in Development Economics from the University of Oxford. He has been involved in the construction of the Asian International Input-Output Tables (AIOT) for 1990, 1995 and 2000, the tables which cover nine East Asian countries and the United States. In 2007, he initiated and organised a new project, alongside of the 2005 AIOT, for constructing the 2005 BRICs International Input-Output Table that covers (for the first time ever) BRICs economies plus Japan, the U.S.A., and the EU. These new sets of data shall be available from IDE in the summer 2011.

Satoshi’s keynote presentation will be on “Asia beyond the Crisis: visions from international input-output analyses”. The characteristic feature of the current Global Economic Crisis is the speed and extent of the shock transmission. The rapid development of cross-national production networks over the past several decades has significantly deepened the economic interdependency between countries, and a shock that occurs in one region, whether positive or negative in nature, will be swiftly and widely transmitted to the rest of the globe. The “Economics of the Crisis”, therefore, entails a detailed examination of the mechanics of shock transmission, by probing the labyrinth of complex supply chains among the countries. The paper aims to show the relevance of international I-O data as a tool to analyse the consequences of the Global Economic Crisis, and envisages the prospect of the post-crisis production system in East Asia.

Utz-Peter Reich, born in 1938 at Bremerhaven, Germany, took his first academic degree in high energy physics from the University of Hamburg. Having lived through the Cuba Crisis he decided to change fields and joined the Federation of German Scientists for a project on  “Consequences of  nuclear war in Germany”. Enrolling in economics and political science, he completed his Ph.D. with a thesis on “The European Security Conference: a game theoretical experiment” from the University of Constance.

When in the 1970s the new Max-Planck-Institute for Social Sciences was founded Utz  joined the project “Sustainable growth” and was involved in developing a system of  “Labour-consumption accounts”. After staying with the German Federal Statistical Office for five years he served as Professor of Economics and Statistics at  Mainz University of  Applied Sciences until retirement. He is now second trombonist of the Big Band Kameleons at Berlin

Utz's keynote presentation will be on "Unequal Exchange in International Trade: Some Old Theories Reviewed in the Light of a New Statistical Method". Theories of an unequal exchange ruling within the global economic system have been voiced by Raoul Prebish and Hans Singer, as falling terms of trade,  and by Arghiri Emmanuel and Samir Amin,  as transfer of surplus value. One reason why neither have found a place in standard economic textbooks may have been, - other reasons not withstanding, – a certain deficiency in making the theories statistically operable. The paper suggests that the newly established statistics of international purchasing power parities when connected to input-output methodology allows to remedy this failure, and to measure inequality in international trade in a well-defined way, a result which may lead to a new discussion of these early theories in respect to equality and efficiency of the present world economic system.

Maureen Rimmer is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre of Policy Studies Monash University.  She is a key contributor in the development, application and documentation of the USAGE model of the United States.  This is a 500-industry, dynamic, CGE model of the U.S. economy, with facilities for generating results for the 50 States and 700 occupations.  One of Maureen’s specialties is the preparation of input-output data as an input to USAGE.

USAGE is used in Washington by the U.S. International Trade Commission and the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Homeland Security and Agriculture.  Apart from the design and implementation of USAGE, Maureen has made major contributions in applications of the model to key policy areas such as: the replacement of imported crude oil with domestically produced biofuels; legalization of unauthorized immigrants; and an analysis of the 2008-9 U.S. recession with and without the Obama stimulus package.

Maureen’s keynote presentation will be on “Input-output tables for use in Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models: the case of the USAGE model of the United States”. CGE models are extensively used to analyse the effects on macro variables and industries of changes in: taxes, public consumption and transfer payments; environmental policies; technology; international commodity prices; labour-market policies; immigration policies; and business conditions and terrorism threats.  They are particularly useful when price sensitivity is important.  The main data used by CGE models is the input-output table.  However, input-output tables prepared by statistical agencies are typically unsuitable for use in CGE models. This presentation is concerned with the transformation of the 1992 benchmark input-output table of the United States into a form suitable for use in the USAGE model.  Problems encountered include: negative input-output flows; hard-to-interpret concepts such as “rest-of-world adjustment for final users”; and flows presented in producers’ prices rather than basic prices.