The Economic Contribution of Agriculture in Delaware

Abstract

The decreasing share of production agriculture in the U.S. economy in general and Delaware in particular has raised questions about the amount of government resources being spent on the local agricultural sector. A basic question in the debate is: “What is the real economic contribution of agriculture?” This study looks at the economic role of agriculture in Delaware, presenting different perspectives of what agriculture is and what it contributes to the state economy. Based on three definitions of agriculture, the economic impacts as measured by shares to total employment, output, and value added were estimated using IMPLAN, an input-output modeling software. In each economic impact measure, the share of the local agricultural sector to the total Delaware economy ranged from around 2% to 6% in 1991.

Accounting for the linkages of agriculture in Hawaii's economy with an input-output model: A final demand-based approach

“…I-O multipliers are then applied to the adjusted outputs to arrive at economy-wide impacts of agriculture. Leones and Conklin (1993), Johnson and Wade (1994), and Tanjuakio et al (1996) used the output-based approach to assess the contribution of agriculture to the economies of Arizona, Virginia, and Delaware, respectively. They all used some form of adjustment to outputs to minimize double counting.…”

Regional Economic Impacts of Reductions in Fisheries Production: A Supply-Driven Approach

“…The usual multipliers are then applied to the adjusted outputs to arrive at the economy-wide impacts of a specific sector. Leones and Conklin (1993), Johnson and Wade (1994), and Tanjuakio, Hastings, and Tytus (1996) used this approach to assess the contribution of agriculture to the economies of Arizona, Virginia, and Delaware, respectively. They all used some form of adjustment to outputs to minimize double counting.…”

“…They all used some form of adjustment to outputs to minimize double counting. Tanjuakio, Hastings, and Tytus (1996) suggested a method through adjustment of the regional purchase coefficients of the industries comprising the agricultural sectors, while Johnson and Wade (1994) estimated the double-counted sales and subtracted them from the total sales of the entire agricultural system. However, most of these procedures are still unable to overcome the double-counting problems entirely.…”

The Economic Impact in Stanislaus and San Joaquin Counties if a Fruit and Vegetable Processor Left as a Result of Changes in the Food Processing Byproduce Use Program

“…However, it is important to note that by defining agriculture in the broadest sense, his results are probably much higher than those who used a narrower definition, which was demonstrated in the study by Tanjuakio, Hastings and Tytys (1996). Broomhall defined five basic food related industries: farm inputs, farm production, food processing, wholesale and retail, and food service (1996).…”

“…Based on the specific needs of this study, the authors opted to set the RPCs for the directly affected industries to zero to avoid double counting. This is often done in studies analyzing the economic effects of an aggregated group of industries and effectively prevents the industries from selling their outputs to each other (Tanjuakio, Hastings, and Tytys, 1996).…”