Structural Decomposition Analysis

Structural decomposition analysis (SDA) explains how an input-output quantity — total output, value added, energy use, or emissions — changed between two periods by attributing the change to its underlying structural determinants, chiefly shifts in production technology (the Leontief inverse) versus shifts in the level and composition of final demand. Built on comparative statics over two or more comparable tables, SDA expresses the difference as a sum of effects and resolves the indeterminacy of multiplicative terms by averaging the two polar decomposition forms, the convention standardized by Dietzenbacher and Los.