Marko Melolinna
Input/output networks are important in propagating shocks in an economy. For understanding the aggregate effects of shocks, it is useful to know which sectors are central (ie, providing a lot of inputs to a lot of other sectors) and how the central sectors are affected by and propagate the shocks to other sectors. In a new Staff Working Paper, my co-author and I build a structural model incorporating key features of the sectoral production input/output network in the UK, and then use the model to help us understand UK productivity dynamics since the global financial crisis (GFC). We find that the slower productivity growth rates since the GFC are mainly due to negative shocks originating from the manufacturing sector.