The impact of technological innovations and adjustments within agriculture on the economic growth and development of Northeast Texas

Policy and decision-makers within an economic region require information concerning the impact of various economic sectors on the overall economy. Information concerning the influence of improved technology can assist educational organizations in establishing priorities in program development. The Leontief input-output technique provided the theoretical framework for developing the economic models constructed in this study. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of the 30 defined agricultural sectors on the economy of a 23 county Northeast Texas region. Analyses were made for two levels of technology or management. The average level of management described the economy as it actually existed in 1967. The advanced level of technology estimated the changes developing from the application of Texas Agricultural Experiment Station and Texas Agricultural Extension Service recommendations to the 30 agricultural sectors. The remaining sectors were assumed to be constant except as required to allow changes in the agricultural sectors. Output and income multipliers were developed of both Type I and Type II. An output multiplier estimates the total dollar change in output generated in the economy from a {dollar}1 change in income received by households and paid by a specified sector or industry. Type I multipliers treated households as exogenous production sectors and Type II multipliers considered households as endogenous to the producing sector.