GTAP Data Base

The Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) is coordinated by the Center for Global Trade Analysis at Purdue University.¹ Its network numbered 35,599 people when its About page was read in October 2026, and a consortium of 26 national, international and private institutions provides the Center's baseline funding.¹ The project assembles databases, develops economic models and teaches courses in their use.¹ Its own research covers trade and industrial policy, energy transitions, climate change, economic development, biodiversity, pollution and the circular economy.¹

The centrepiece is the GTAP Data Base, which describes bilateral trade, production, consumption and the intermediate use of goods and services for the whole world.² It is a consistent picture of the world economy for a given reference year, built from national input-output tables, which record what each industry buys from the others, together with trade, macroeconomic, energy and protection data.³ Members of the network supply much of the data, and new contributions must come with their sources and methods.² GTAP says its purpose is to feed simulation models with a consistent set of economic facts rather than to publish input-output tables, and points readers who only want to compare economic figures to sources such as the World Bank, the IMF and FAO.³

GTAP 12, the current release, is described in a 2025 paper by Aguiar and colleagues in the Journal of Global Economic Analysis.⁷ It distinguishes 145 countries and 18 aggregate regions for seven reference years, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2023, across 65 goods and services sectors.⁷ Bilateral trade and international transport margins link every country and region.⁷ It is the first release to build land use and land cover, in 18 agroecological zones, into the standard database, and greenhouse gas emissions data come alongside.⁷

The data is designed for the GTAP Model.³ It is a computable general equilibrium model, in which prices adjust until supply meets demand in every market of an economy at once.⁶ The standard model covers many regions and sectors, assumes perfect competition, and treats goods from different countries as imperfect substitutes (the Armington assumption).⁶ It is written in GEMPACK and run through RunGTAP, a free Windows interface; a dynamic version, GDyn, adds investment and foreign ownership of capital.⁶ Users first aggregate the regions and sectors they need with the GTAPAgg or FlexAgg programs, then run the model to study trade, environmental or migration policies.³

The current release is sold. Proceeds help pay for the next one, and every purchase is a one-time fee for permanent access to that version.^2,4 In October 2026 GTAP 12 cost $10,000 for a for-profit company, $8,000 for a non-profit or a government office, and from $1,500 to $5,800 for universities, at the standard price for high- and upper-middle-income countries.⁴ Prices are lower for buyers in lower-middle and low-income countries, down to $400 for a single academic user, and are not negotiable.⁴ Releases at least two versions old are free and unrestricted to use, though they should be cited.⁵ The newest free one is GTAP 10, with reference years 2004, 2007, 2011 and 2014, 141 regions and 65 sectors.⁵ The aggregation program GTAPAgg runs on Windows.³

For someone modelling a place, GTAP is a starting point for asking how a tariff, a trade agreement or a climate policy moves production, prices and trade between countries and sectors.^1,3 It works at the scale of countries and groups of countries, and GTAP runs courses from introductory to advanced for those learning to use the data and models.^1,7