Introduction to the Global Trade Analysis Project and the GTAP Data Base

The Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) is a global network of researchers and policy makers conducting quantitative analysis of international policy issues. The motivation and ultimate success of the Project stems from the fact that collaboration is essential for detailed analysis of the global economy. The importance of collaboration to improve the quality of policy analysis world-wide is most clearly seen in the development of the GTAP Data Base. The GTAP Data Base is the centerpiece of the Global Trade Analysis Project. It records the annual flows of goods and services for the entire world economy in the benchmark year(s). It consists of bilateral trade, transport, and protection matrices that link individual country/regional economic data bases. The production of the GTAP Data Base relies on the valuable contributions of many individuals and organizations throughout the world. Individuals contribute the best available input-output table for their country, while other experts contribute the macro, trade, protection and other data required. The Center for Global Trade Analysis, the home of GTAP, then brings these contributions together into one useable, globally consistent, database. The result is a fully documented , publicly available and regularly updated global database. This year (2012), the eighth version of the GTAP Data Base was released, covering 129 countries, 57 sectors, 5 factors and two base years (2004 and 2007). The GTAP Data Base is utilized in a suite of comparative static and dynamic computable general equilibrium models and underlies most contemporary economic analysis of global policy issues related to trade, energy and the environment.