No Detail Fits All: Effects of Electricity Sector Disaggregation in Input-Output Models

The ongoing expansion of renewable electricity technologies calls for a deeper understanding of their economy-wide impacts. However, many input–output models remain constrained by aggregated national statistics that do not distinguish between electricity generation technologies. Disaggregating the electricity sector in input–output tables enables more detailed study of linkages between electricity technologies and upstream sectors but is costly. This paper compares three levels of (dis‑)aggregation: (1) national input–output tables with a fully aggregated energy sector, (2) semi-disaggregated tables using a special data extraction, and (3) a disaggregation that distinguishes between different renewable and fossil energy technologies. These levels are applied to three scenarios of Austria’s energy transition to assess how disaggregation affects results for investment and operation & maintenance (O&M) expenditures and to gain insight into the suitability of each disaggregation level for different research objectives. The results demonstrate substantial differences between the fully disaggregated approach and the other two, while the aggregated and semi-disaggregated tables yield similar outcomes. Disaggregation reveals that renewable investments generate, on average, lower domestic effects than aggregated models suggest, whereas O&M activities produce higher domestic value added but lower employment. Results also differ by technology: wind power shows particularly strong deviations in investment effects, solar PV in O&M value added, and biomass in O&M employment. Overall, the analysis demonstrates that while aggregated input–output models may suffice for broad assessments, detailed disaggregation becomes increasingly critical when focusing on specific generation technologies or capturing the structural implications of the energy transition more accurately.