Input-output evaluation of Germany's national cluster of forest-based industries

In recent years, it has become increasingly popular to consider the forest-based industries as a so-called cluster. The forest cluster includes forestry enterprises as well as a wide range of industries, all engaged in the processing and manufacturing of roundwood as well as of semifinished and finished wood, pulp and paper products. The purpose of this paper was to depict the inter-industry linkages of the German forest cluster with the help of an input-output table. In the past, it was often the case that the various interactions between the different industries of the forest cluster were not fully perceived by industry managers, governmental bodies or associations, probably due to the distorted representation of the forest-based industries in official statistics. In this sense, the present study aimed at providing crucial baseline information for the understanding of this still rather fragmented sector. The disaggregated input-output table shows the various flows of inputs (measured in monetary values) into the productive process and matches them with outputs. Moreover, two exemplary impact analyses are conducted.