Communities of different sizes in Saskatchewan seeking economic opportunities have shown interest in ethanol production because of the perceived benefits a region can capture from such a project. In spite of this interest and the perceived benefits, no information on the type and magnitude of economic impacts which would accrue to different sized communities existed. This study was undertaken to fill this information gap by establishing facts on the economic impacts various levels of communities could capture from ethanol-cattle production complexes. Since Saskatchewan communities operate in a hierarchical fashion and are classified into seven levels using central place theory, questions concerning economic development should be viewed in a regional hierarchical framework. A seven-region hierarchically-based interregional input-output model for the Saskatchewan economy was constructed using the Supply-Demand Pool (SDP) method in combination with the logical assumptions regarding trade patterns within the central place region. It was assumed that higher-level regions are surplus regions in goods produced by non-primary sectors, and hence ship excess supply to producers and final users in the dominated lower-level regions and outside of the province. On the other hand, it was assumed that the hinterland region dominates trade in goods in the primary sectors. The hinterland earned income by producing and supplying goods and services in the primary sectors to the higher-level regions and outside the province. The model consisted of 14 aggregated sectors seven household sectors, and allowed for net flows of labour income through commuting patterns of workers who resided in the seven regions. At the same time the consumption expenditures of residents in a particular region were adjusted for outshopping purchases. The estimated model was used to assess the economic impacts from both the construction and operation phase of an integrated ethanol-cattle production complex across six hierarchical regions. The major findings of this study were that, under both phases of the project, intraregional output and labor income impacts occurring in the high level regions were larger than those in the lower-level regions. Also, the higher-level regions experienced larger interregional impacts and had spillover coefficients of smaller magnitude compared to lower-level regions. The intraregional output and labor income impacts tended to decrease as one moves down the hierarchy from top to bottom regions. On the other hand, the spillovers or leakages were increasing as one moves down the hierarchy from higher-level regions to lower-level regions. The higher-level regions have more diversified economies and smaller leakages of income and spending than lower-level regions. On the other hand, lower-level regions experienced large income leakages through input purchases and consumer spending in neighbouring higher-level regions. The results indicate that lower-level regions will not benefit more than higher-level regions from the development of an integrated ethanol-cattle production complex. Thus, if the goal of public funding of ethanol projects is to maximize impacts in the project-region, then higher-level regions would be preferred to lower-level regions. This raises a concern that the opportunity of pursuing regional development through ethanol processing may not reach all those communities who need it the most, especially the smaller communities. On the other hand, if the objective of rural development is to solve the problems of rural communities, the policy-makers, could target lower-level regions specially those experiencing economic decline. It is important to mention that integrated ethanol-cattle production continues to enjoy subsidies from the governments. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USASK/oai:usask.ca:etd-10202004-235834 |
| Date | 01 January 1996 |
| Creators | Musaba, Emmanuel Chibanda |
| Contributors | Kulshreshtha, Surendra |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | University of Saskatchewan Library |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-10202004-235834 |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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