Improving the Quality of Regional Economic Indicators in the UK: A Framework for the Production of Supply and Use and Input Output Tables for the Four Nations

With increased devolution of powers, the UK’s departure from the EU and Covid-19 having different impacts on different areas of the UK, timely regional economic statistics are needed to support regional and national policymaking. This paper develops a strategic framework for the production of supply and use tables (SUTs) and input output tables (IOTs) for the four nations of the UK. Our proposed framework is supported by three pieces of analysis. First, we undertake a comprehensive review of different methods for constructing regional SUTs and IOTs and current international practise. Second, we discuss how the Scottish, Northern Irish and UK SUTs and IOTs are produced and the challenges faced in their construction. Third, we compare the existing Scottish IOT, produced using hybrid methods, with the Scottish IOT we obtain through top-down regionalisation of the UK IOT using location quotients. We conclude our paper by outlining nine key recommendations.