ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE LAKE ERIE FISHERY AND OTHER LAKE ERIE INDUSTRIES: AN INPUT-OUTPUT MODEL OF THE NORTHERN OHIO REGIONAL ECONOMY

The main objective of this study is to examine the economic impact of Lake Erie fishery and other Lake Erie industries on the Northern Ohio regional economy. This objective is accomplished by developing a 43 sector input-output (I/O) model for a seventeen county region in Northern Ohio. This study focuses on analyzing inter-industry linkages among economic sectors and estimating economic impact of potential policies on commercial and sport fishing in the region.;The study findings show that the sectors with the highest growth potential in the region are heat, plumbing and fabricated metals, finance and insurance, construction, chemicals and allied products, wholesale and miscellaneous services.;The sectors most likely to generate negative impacts in the region are textiles, food and kindred products, water transportation, paper and allied products, electric and electronics, primary iron and steel manufacturing and motor vehicle equipment. Due to extensive interdependence between the high growth and the high negative impact potential sectors, it is recommended that a policy which increases the flexibility of the regional economy be considered. It is also suggested that sectors with moderate employment declines such as electric and electronics and paper and allied products be given investment tax credits to improve their production processes and to adopt new technology.;The estimated economic impact of Lake Erie and all its resources on the region in 1978 was ;An open, single-region and static I/O model which combines survey and nonsurvey data is used.;Lake Erie sport anglers spent ;Analysis of the trade-off between commercial and sport fishing in the region indicated that additional allocations of the fishery from commercial to sport fishing in the region would increase regional output, income and employment if sport angler expenditures in the region increased proportionately to the additional allocation of fish. If sport anglers made no additional expenditures to harvest the additional fish, the region would lose the output, income and employment generated by commercial fishing activity. For the region to break even, sport anglers would have to increase their expenditures in the region by at least 48 percent of the estimated expenditures under the proportional increase assumption, where the estimated gain just offsets the loss of commercial activity.