Materials, Engineering, and the Economy:an Input-Output Study of Technical Decisions in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The object of this work is to make a quantitative estimate of the effects on the UK economy of some technical changes in the use of materials in the manufacture of engineering and construction output. This is achieved by an analysis based on the 1968 input-output tables for the UK economy. The estimates include the effects on the output of every industry, on the UK imports bill, on total labour and capital stock requirements, and on the prices of UK industrial products. The technical changes considered include a substitution of plastic for steel in motor car bodies, a reduction of the material content of final engineering and construction products, and are duction in the steel waste arising in engineering industries. A comparison is made of the energy used in engineering and construction industries directly, and the energy used indirectly byway of materials. The effects of some technical changes in motorcar manufacturing are compared with the effects of some non-technical changes in motor car use. Finally, the relation between national economic variable and engineering materials are analysed in detail ,and the contribution changes in material use by the engineering and construction industries can make to national economic objectives are estimated and compared for each material. The work shows that technical changes in materials use in UK engineering and construction industries may achieve considerable national savings of labour, capital stock, imports, energy, etc. But for savings of significance to the whole economy, technical changes need to be widespread over all materials and industries, and should lead to material savings rather than materials substitution.