Intersectoral and intercountry linkages as drivers of employment growth in emerging economies: The case of Visegrád countries

Abstract

This study provides new empirical evidence on the transformation of the structure of production in the Visegrád (V4) countries—the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia—using a multi-regional version of the subsystem approach to global input-output tables. In particular, the paper analyses structural change in these countries, with a focus on the integration of market services in manufacturing. Moreover, using an input-output structural decomposition analysis (SDA), we evaluate the role of some key determinants of employment changes in manufacturing. The results indicate that an increasing amount of intermediate demand comes from producer services. Further, a substantial portion of manufacturing employment is generated by foreign final demand, and the SDA demonstrates that labour intensity and final demand play a determining role in the change in the number of hours worked.