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About GTAP: Center for Global Trade Analysis

The Global Trade Analysis Project press kit is a resource for members of the media looking for information on the GTAP. For additional details or requests, please email contactgtap@purdue.edu.

Key Facts

What is GTAP?

  • The Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) is a network of researchers and policy makers conducting quantitative analysis of international policy issues, with the goal of improving the quality of quantitative analysis of global economic issues within an economy-wide framework.
  • Founded in 1992 by Thomas W. Hertel, GTAP has become the common "language" for conducting analysis of global policy issues, leading to GTAP-based results being influential in decision making around the world in trade, climate change, energy, and the environment.

Who is GTAP?

  • The Global Trade Analysis Project is coordinated by the Center for Global Trade Analysis, which is housed in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. The Center's mission is to provide leadership in economic policy analysis through better data, fostering collaboration and research.
  • GTAP is truly a global project with 30,718 GTAP Network members worldwide representing 179 different countries. The GTAP Network is intended to ease the transfer of skills and knowledge, foster the exchange of ideas among the applied general equilibrium community, and improve collaboration and encourage joined projects.
  • Guidance and base-level support for the project are provided by the GTAP Consortium, which unites members from government agencies, international institutions, the private sector, and academia.

What does GTAP offer?

  • The centerpiece of the Global Trade Analysis Project is the GTAP Data Base, a global data base describing bilateral trade patterns, production, consumption, and intermediate use of commodities and services. The GTAP Data Base is utilized by thousands worldwide and is a key input into contemporary applied general equilibrium analysis of global economic issues.
  • The underlying framework for the theory and structure for analysis come from two global general equilibrium models, the Standard and Dynamic GTAP Models, which are developed and maintained by the Center for Global Trade Analysis.
  • The Center for Global Trade Analysis also offers a number of conferences and courses to help promote GTAP-based research, education, collaboration, and outreach, many of which have led to the 46,000+ citations to various GTAP-based research on Google Scholar. In addition, the Center also publishes the Journal of Global Economic Analysis, which provides an open access, peer-reviewed platform for publication and dissemination of innovations concerning applied general equilibrium modeling.

Recent "GTAP in the News" Stories

Studies, stories, and more by GTAP Network members using GTAP data.

How COP29 host Azerbaijan could boost growth through climate action
November 2024 - Azerbaijan's economy is highly dependent on fossil-fuel exports, making its economic prospects vulnerable to rising emissions-cutting ambition around the world.
The internal rivalries that will determine Trump's policies on trade
October 2024 - Some people think it's a category mistake even to address Donald Trump's trade policy as an actual thing rather than a mess of prejudices and contradictions, and that for other governments to employ logic and game theory in engaging with it is like trying to play chess with an angry rhino. They may have a point. It's not a thing of clarity and beauty. Still, if the Republican candidate does get elected, his policy positions will at least delineate the landscape for his administration's internal battles.
MyGeoHub successfully hosts the 2024 SIMPLE-G Short Course
June 2024 - MyGeoHub, the geospatial science gateway designed to support geospatial modeling, data analysis, and visualization, has a lot to offer to the broad research and education communities. Through hosting groups, datasets, tools, training materials, and educational content, MyGeoHub has set out to become the preeminent online hub in the geospatial science fields. One of its innovative features is the ability to host and teach full online courses. Recently, MyGeoHub successfully hosted the 2024 Multi-Scale Analysis of Sustainability SIMPLE-G Short Course.
Recipients named for 2024 Purdue University Online Excellence Awards
May 2024 - Purdue University Online has announced the recipients of the 2024 Online Excellence Awards. The awards recognize professional accomplishment and promote creative and effective approaches to learning delivered via digital education media. Dr. Zeynep Akgul (GTAP-U coordinator, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics), Ginger Batta (lead program manager, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics), and Dr. Amanda Countryman (associate professor, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State University) received the Innovative Online Use of Technology (Credentials) award for the GTAP 101 Course - Introduction to Computable General Equilibrium Modeling in the GTAP Framework.
Trump-Biden 2024 election rematch promises economic pain for China
February 2024 - For China's economy and its slumping stock market - down more than 40% from its 2021 high - that's bad news. Worse, Trump's rhetoric may add pressure on Biden to take harsher measures in the run-up to election day.
[Full List]

Proper Referencing

Below are examples of how to reference the GTAP Data Bases and/or Models. Highlighted text represents variable details.

General Usage
  • The quantitative findings discussed in this report are based on the xxx model, calibrated to the GTAP # Data Base (www.gtap.agecon.purdue.edu). Additional information on the specific aggregation and model modifications are available from the authors and/or posted at xxx.
GTAP Data Base
  • Aguiar, A., Chepeliev, M., Corong, E., & van der Mensbrugghe, D. (2023). The Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) Data Base: Version 11. Journal of Global Economic Analysis, 7(2). https://doi.org/10.21642/JGEA.070201AF (Original work published December 19, 2022)
GTAP Model
  • Corong, E., Hertel, T., McDougall, R., Tsigas, M., & van der Mensbrugghe, D. (2017). The Standard GTAP Model, Version 7. Journal of Global Economic Analysis, 2(1), 1-119. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.21642/JGEA.020101AF

Key Graphics

Clicking the links below will display key, live graphics on differenct aspects of GTAP.

GTAP Network Composition

GTAP 11 Data Base – Spatial Coverage

Composite Region (19)
Country (141)
XOC (Rest of Oceania)
XEA (Rest of East Asia)
XSE (Rest of Southeast Asia)
XSA (Rest of South Asia)
XNA (Rest of North America)
XSM (Rest of South America)
XCA (Rest of Central America)
XCB (Caribbean)
XEF (Rest of EFTA)
XEE (Rest of Eastern Europe)
XER (Rest of Europe)
XSU (Rest of Former Soviet Union)
XWS (Rest of Western Asia)
XNF (Rest of North Africa)
XWF (Rest of Western Africa)
XAC (Rest of South and Central Africa)
XEC (Rest of Eastern Africa)
XSC (Rest of South African Customs Union)
XTW (Rest of the World)

GTAP 11 Data Base – Sectoral Coverage

Countries with GTAP Data Base Users

High-Resolution Images

Images © 2018, Purdue University. All rights reserved.

Notable Quotes about GTAP

Thomas Hertel Thomas Hertel
Distinguished Professor and Executive Director
Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

“GTAP was born out of frustration. Those of us seeking to make forward progress in global CGE modeling were frustrated with the lack of replicability and transparency that reigned in this field (outside of Australia) circa 1990. It was also the case that large, multi-year projects undertaken by forward-looking research managers in public institutions had to start from scratch and ended up reinventing the wheel – particularly when it came to obtaining and reconciling global economic data. This proved very time-consuming and limited the effectiveness of most policy-oriented projects in the global CGE arena. By the end of the one to two years it typically took to come up with a credibly parameterized model, sympathetic managers and decision makers had generally moved on to other interests, and even other positions. By providing a common, widely accepted, analytical data base for global economic analysis, GTAP allows economists to respond quickly to emerging issues, focusing their scarce resources on what really matters. This is typically an accurate characterization of the proposed policies and an improved specification of economic behavior in the sector or region of interest. As a consequence, the GTAP Database is now used on a regular basis by economists and decision makers in many of the world’s leading institutions dealing with international trade and environmental policies. This widespread adoption carries the added benefit that results can be readily communicated across departments, ministries and nations, with virtually no loss of content through translation. Today, 25 years after the project’s founding at Purdue University, GTAP is a language spoken around the world!”

Bob Koopman Bob Koopman
Chief Economist and Director of the Economic Research and Statistics Division
World Trade Organization

“The Global Trade Analysis Project has been instrumental in advancing policy analysis and insights on economy-wide effects for over 20 years. The initial objective of a common database and economic model to assess trade policy changes, which has evolved into energy and environmental questions, filled a major need and truly lowered to "cost of entry" for many researchers and organizations. The collective efforts to develop, refine and update the database and model ensures up to date data and techniques, and helps ensure policy makers benefit from top notch analysis. One important advantage the GTAP approach provides over econometric and partial equilibrium analysis is the ability to illustrate tradeoffs across the economy and to prevent "magical" results so many policy makers would like to see and some other models deliver. The fact is that applied general equilibrium analysis keeps you grounded in the real constraints an economy faces in terms of resource endowments and technologies. Partial views of policy changes often ignore these tradeoffs and seem to suggest to policy makers that economic growth and efficiency are simple things to be released when policy changes. While GTAP and applied general equilibrium has its very real limitations and challenges having this data and toolkit in your analytical portfolio is critical.”

Frank van Tongeren Frank van Tongeren
Head of Division, Policies in Trade and Agriculture
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

“GTAP has done nothing less than revolutionize the way we perform applied economic research. Harnessing the power of network economies was not an obvious thing to do in the trade research community, or indeed in economic research more generally, when GTAP started 25 years ago.”

Dominique van der Mensbrugghe Dominique van der Mensbrugghe
Director and Research Professor
Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University

“There is hardly a trade minister in the world who has not heard of GTAP. No trade agreement is made without some quantitative assessment using a GTAP-based model.”

John Reilly John Reilly
Co-Director
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change

“Coming from a perspective of natural resources and the environment, first at the USDA and then at MIT with focus on climate change, I saw the value of an economy-wide approach to evaluating resource and environment issues. However, the challenge with standard input-output, social accounting frameworks is that the wonderful economic assumption that prices represent the marginal value of inputs and outputs, allowing aggregation across ‘apples and oranges’, does not hold for environmental externalities that by definition are not incorporated into market prices. Each dollar of energy or land use does not have the same environmental implication. Thus, what one needed was enough disaggregation to add supplemental physical accounts to the economic data—how many tons of coal (and resultant carbon dioxide emissions), how many hectares of land (lost carbon, albedo change), and what improvements or limits on improvements in efficiency in energy conversion are possible. Substitution elasticities in the power sector, if relative prices were pushed far enough, could end up with more energy coming out than was present in the fuel input, a violation of basic laws of thermodynamics. GTAP has gradually added physical accounting of energy, greenhouse gases, land and water, and more recently greater detail in the power generation sector to the underlying economic data, while demonstrating methods for incorporating that data into analysis. This has been absolutely crucial to understanding the connections between the world economy and the earth system—or more aptly, to allow the creation of models of the earth where human activity is an active part of the system. And, by making this data and research widely available, it has facilitated different avenues of analysis and model development. Advances in computing power have been phenomenal over the past decades—however those advances would be useless without advances in data and analytical approaches to using it. GTAP is the major (only) data resource of for economy-wide modeling.”

Social Media and Digital Resources

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Contact the Center for Global Trade Analysis

Center for Global Trade Analysis
Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University
403 Mitch Daniels Blvd., West Lafayette, IN 47907-2056 USA
Ph: +1-765-494-7048
For additional details or requests, please email contactgtap@purdue.edu.


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Center for Global Trade Analysis
Department of Agricultural Economics
Purdue University
403 Mitch Daniels Blvd.
West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2056 USA

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