Richard Stone's Contribution to Input-Output Analysis

This paper highlights Richard Stone’s contribution to input-output analysis, the relevance, originality and effectiveness of which are closely tied to the international and national positions he held during his professional life, especially in relation to the development of an international standard system of national accounts and the development of a comprehensive and realistic econometric model of growth. This paper provides an overview of the major theoretical and empirical contributions of Stone to input-output analysis, as well as some less well-known papers. Among the former, we may mention Stone’s studies on the integration of input-output tables into the Social National Accounts (SNA), his research on the Social Accounting Matrices (SAM), the adjustment and updating of the technical coefficients (RAS method). Among the latter may be mentioned the attempt to apply the methods of input-output at the micro level. Finally, the paper shows Stone’s interest, in his later years, in the application of input-output analysis to demography, health, education, and environment.