INTERLINK, An Interindustrial Model for Simulating a Balanced Regional Economic Development and its Links to IIASA's Set of Energy Models

The INTERLINK model is a dynamic linear model simulating development of a national or regional economy as a whole. The objective of the model is to provide projections of the potential long-term economic development of a region or a nation under various assumptions on the present and the potential future structures of the overall system. The model allows one to evaluate the potential economic growth of a region or a nation within and after the transition period (.i.e., the change from the use of conventional to nonconventional energy sources), to describe the internally consistent operation of several production sectors, to provide information required for energy demand projections, and to identify limiting factors in the development of regional economies. The model is a dynamic input-output Leontief system with a set of variables, such as GNP, export, import, employment, investment, and final consumption, given both as totals and by sectors. Structural parameters, such as technological and capital coefficients, final consumption profile vectors, and labor-output ratios, are exogenously changeable over time. The model can be used both as an optimization model, with various assumptions on the objectives of a given nation or region in the transition period, and as a simulation model, with assumed growth rates for various production sectors and final consumption. As a result, the model provides estimates of GNP, final consumption, and investment changing over time, for a regional energy system development strategy under consideration