About GTAP: Global Trade Analysis Project
Founded in 1992 and based at Purdue University, the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) supports a network of 31,624 individuals engaged in quantitative analysis of 21st century challenges. A consortium of 32 leading national, international, and private institutions provides baseline financial support and strategic advice. Guided by a philosophy of collaboration in data development combined with an open marketplace for ideas in analytics, GTAP aims to advance knowledge and facilitate deliberate decision-making. To this end, GTAP:
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Lowers barriers to the conduct of high-quality analysis of global issues.
Data - GTAP assembles, documents, and makes publicly available a suite of databases that are widely regarded as the gold standard for global economywide analysis.
Models and software - GTAP develops and makes publicly available a suite of cutting-edge and fully documented models and collaborates with leading analytical software providers and the open-source programming community in the application of those models.
Training - GTAP offers regular training courses, ranging from introductory to advanced, to scaffold network members in the application of the data, models, and software. -
Conducts research on pressing issues with global ramifications.
While the bulk of GTAP-related research is conducted by network members, the Project itself houses the largest group of apex economywide modelers in the world. This unique concentration of skill is buttressed by sector expertise, notably in energy and food systems. Guided by a distinguished Scientific Council, GTAP researchers, often in collaboration with network members, address a range of issues including trade and industrial policy, energy transitions, climatic change, economic development, biodiversity preservation, pollution abatement, and circular economy.
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Serves as a platform for discussion and dissemination of novel approaches and new ideas.
GTAP brings together thought leaders at the Annual Conference on Global Economic Analysis, fosters innovation through the peer-reviewed Journal of Global Economic Analysis, hosts a Virtual Seminar Series, and maintains an active presence on social media.
GTAP-related analytics are a regular feature in the world’s most prestigious scientific journals and inform a vast array of decision-making processes by governments, international organizations, and private entities around the world.
A Common Language for Global Economic Analysis
Since its inception in 1993, GTAP has rapidly become a common "language" for many of those conducting global economic analysis. For example, in the 1995 conference aimed at evaluating the WTO's Uruguay Round Agreement, The Uruguay Round and the Developing Countries (Martin and Winters, 1995), three of the five quantitative analyses were based on GTAP data:
- Harrison, Rutherford and Tarr, 1996
- Hertel, Martin, Yanagishima, and Dimaranan, 1996
- Francois, McDonald and Nordstrom, 1996
More recently, the WTO and the World Bank co-sponsored two conferences on the so-called Millennium Round of Multilateral Trade talks in Geneva. Here, virtually all of the quantitative, global economic analyses were based on the GTAP framework:
- Anderson, Erwidodo, and Ingco, 1999
- Hertel, and Martin 1999
- Anderson, 1999
- Josling and Rae, 1999
- Francois, J., 1999
- Elbehri, A., M. Ingco, T.W. Hertel, K. Pearson, 1999
- Hertel, T.W., K. Anderson, J. F. Francois, and W. Martin, 1999
- van Meijl, H., F. van Tongeren, P. Veenendaal, 1999
GTAP-based analysis has also assumed considerable prominence in recent meetings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Here, deliberations over policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions have generated demand for GTAP-based assessments of issues ranging from the spill-over effects of domestic policies internationally, to leakage of carbon due to relocation of industry, the effects of mitigation policies on competitiveness and the impact of introducing a new international market for tradable emissions permits. At the June 1999 Expert Meeting of Working Group III in The Hague, four of the key research groups drew on the GTAP Data Base for their analysis of the economic implications of carbon taxes:
- Babiker and Jacoby, 1999
- Bollen, Manders and Timmer, 1999
- Bernstein, Montgomery, and Rutherford 1999
- McKibbin, Ross, Shackelton and Wilcoxen, 1999
GTAP Products and Resources
GTAP offers a variety of products, including: data, models, and resources for multi-region, applied general equilibrium analysis of global economic issues. It also organizes courses and conferences and undertakes research projects.
As of 2016 the GTAP Center has begun publishing the Journal of Global Economic Analysis, an online only journal devoted to global economics analysis. Listen to the Purdue Agricultural Economics Podcast episode 36, where Tom Hertel talks about its impact.
In order to keep abreast of recent developments in the project, interested individuals are encouraged to subscribe to the GTAP-L mailing list.
A Truly Global Project
GTAP is a truly global project, as can be seen by exploring the GTAP Network. Core support and advice for the Project comes from a Consortium of international and national agencies from around the world.
In addition to the GTAP Research Fellows, there are several hundred Short Course Alumni and Data Base Subscribers, representing numerous countries in the GTAP Network.
A list of research applications using the GTAP Data Base is maintained on this website, along with a list of frequently asked questions.
