Pulp and Paper Industry in Traditional and New Markets – A Fuzzy Input-Output Analysis

Abstract

The global business environment of the pulp and paper industry (PPI) has changed drastically during past decades. This paper focuses on analyzing the linkages between PPI and other industries in Brazil, Finland, and the United States. We identified the most important inter-industry linkages and analyzed possible differences between countries, and over time. We also predicted Finland’s input-output structure using fuzzy linear models. The results suggest that there are distinct differences across countries and also over time. It seems that the global changes in pulp and paper markets have changed the purchase “recipe” of PPI in all of the countries investigated. Fuzzy input-output analysis was found to be a useful forecast method, although further research is needed prior to any generalizations.