Development and Use of a Supply-determined Social Accounting Matrix to Evaluate Economic Impacts of Forest Productivity on Distribution of Regional Factor Income
This dissertation identifies the distributional impacts of forest productivity on sources of regional factor income. It is the first analysis which quantifies the interrelationships between generation of factor income resulting from timber production and its distribution throughout a regional economy. Specifically identifying which income levels are impacted and the extent of this impact allows macroeconomic assessment of policies concerned with the benefits of natural resource management to regional populations. This analysis provides quantification of economic development within a region. It is the distinction between economic development and economic growth that provides uniqueness to this study. The primary focus of this dissertation is on the distribution of factor income throughout a regional society. Due to the inextricable nature of social welfare and income generation, economic development is an appropriate term applied when referring to issues dealing with equity of resource use and the distribution of income. This is contrasted with the less specific term economic growth, which, in this context, is taken to simply refer to increasing the total income within a region regardless of its distribution to specific income groups.The purpose of this dissertation is to construct a rational model which quantifies the distribution of factor income and allows prediction of socioeconomic impacts resulting from management of timber resources. This model also assesses the distributional impacts that processing of these renewable raw materials exhibit throughout the regional economy.This dissertation uses procedural technique, published data sources, computer databases operated interactively, and quantitative specification as a basis for drawing conclusions. Whenever possible, data specific to the region under analysis is used. If not available, data specific to other regions is applied with appropriate specification of assumptions and adjustments.Agricultural Economic
