Regional economic impacts of structural particleboard in the United States, 1979 to 1988

This paper examines the regional distribution of certain impacts due to the introduction of structural particleboard, a major technological advance in structural wood panels. The distribution of consumer benefits and production impacts is analyzed for the four census regions of the United States. Changes in wood requirements and imports and exports of structural panels are discussed. All four regions gained consumer benefits. The South gained the most with a share of more than 31 percent, while the West gained the least with a share of about 13 percent. All regions except the West increased their share of wood panel production, with the South capturing the largest share. As a technical advance, structural particleboard has produced sizeable economic efficiency benefits to society as a whole, but impacts have varied between regions.

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