The minerals industry and employment in Western Australia: assessing its impacts in federal electorates

Western Australia is one of the largest mineral producers in the world and this sector directly contributes something like 20% of the gross state prod uct. However, the activities of the minerals industry are concentrated in p articular regions of WA. The key purpose of this paper is to quantify the e xtent to which the indirect employment effects from the minerals industry a re more widely dispersed regionally than are the direct effects. Using a CG E model and a tops-down approach, we find that the flow-on effects from min erals are considerably more widely dispersed than the direct effects. Howev er, it must be noted that the extent of this dispersion may be exaggerated by the tops-down methodology. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.