The inflationary effects of an increase in the oil price may depend upon the structural characteristics of the economy. In an international comparison,
this work examines how the structure of production makes Italy more vulnerable than other European countries in front of an oil price shock. This study
is carried out by using the input-output tables of the economies of the EEC member countries in the year 1970. At the beginning of the seventies, Italy turned out to be in a relatively unfavourable position
because of two main reasons: (i) composition of production with a high proportion of activities that were oil intensive;
(ii) relatively low requirements of imported inputs and a consequent high indexation of the prices of domestic factors of production.