Policy Analysis of the Role of Imports in Measurement of the Importance of Iran's Economic Sectors

The measurement of linkages constitutes the basis of evaluation in key sectors. However, considering conventional tables as the yardstick in the calculation of linkages, it is probable that investment in sectors with high forward and backward linkages which lead to an increase in the import, fails to bring about the expected dynamism on the economic level. In this direction and in order to show the outstanding role that the imports play in the measurements of the sectors, this paper makes an attempt to separate imports according to intermediate, consumption, and capital import using the disaggregated revised input-output tables prepared by Statistical Center of Iran in 1380 (the latest table that prepared by Statistical Center of Iran). After preparing tables with domestic transactions, domestic and conventional linkages are calculated based on traditional and new approach.The final results reveal the slight changes in the key sectors position from conventional into domestic status in the traditional approach. Changes in the sector's rankings in the new approach after eliminating imports of final demand components and intermediate transactions, show that 51% and 62.5% of service and agricultural sectors of the table can reach a relative higher position among the other sectors, considering domestic linkages; also, almost 48% of industrial sectors will decrease among other sectors.