ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores some of the larger issues involved in this widespread use of input/output tables to reflect the realities of the marketplace. It examines the use of such databases in illuminating broader public sector problems of national and regional policy. The book begins with speculate on whether it would be possible to identify the participants in these market transactions. It establishes a company called Economie Information Systems (EIS) and was retained by the IBM Company in a three-way joint arrangement with the Dun and Bradstreet Company to develop an "input/output data bank." The book discusses that political objections are irrelevant to any evaluation of what is really a tool of analysis rather than a body of doctrine.
