![Sample our Economics, Finance,Business & Industry journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5931/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Economics-Finance-Business-Industry.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
We describe the creation of the Global Multi-Region Input–Output (MRIO) Lab, which is a cloud-computing platform offering a collaborative research environment through which participants can use each other’s resources to assemble their own individual MRIO versions. The Global MRIO Lab’s main purpose is to harness and focus previously disparate resources aimed at compiling large-scale MRIO databases that provide comprehensive representations of interregional trade, economic structure, industrial interdependence, as well as environmental and social impact. Based on the operational Australian Industrial Ecology Lab, a particularly important feature of this cloud environment is a highly detailed regional and sectoral taxonomy called the ‘root classification’. The purpose of this root is to serve as a feedstock from which researchers can choose any combination of regions and economic sectors to form a model of the economy that is suitable to address their particular research questions. Thus, the Global MRIO Lab concept enables enhanced flexibility in MRIO database construction whilst at the same time saving resources and avoiding duplication, by sharing time- and labour-intensive tasks amongst multiple research teams. We explain the concept, architecture, development and preliminary results of the Global MRIO Lab, and discuss its ability to continuously deliver some of the most prominent world MRIO databases.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank CML Leiden, Kyushu University and the University of Groningen for hosting PhD students assigned to the project. The authors also thank Sebastian Juraszek for expertly managing the Lab’s advanced computation requirements, and Charlotte Jarabak for help with collecting data.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Manfred Lenzen http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0828-5288
Arne Geschke http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9193-5829
Thomas Wiedmann http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6395-8887
Notes
1 It should be noted that the Industrial Ecology Laboratory is not meant to be a platform for sharing original data, particularly those copyrighted by statistical agencies. Information disseminated as base tables is usually sufficiently transformed to satisfy confidentiality and copyright requirements.
2 Andrew and Peters (Citation2013), Dietzenbacher et al. (Citation2013b), Lenzen et al. (Citation2013), Meng et al. (Citation2013) and Tukker et al. (Citation2013).
4 The global root algorithm is explained in more detail in the Appendix.
5 Agriculture, hunting, forestry, fishing (ISIC A-B), Mining and Utilities (ISIC C&E), Manufacturing (ISIC D), Construction (ISIC F), Wholesale, retail trade, restaurants and hotels (ISIC G-H), Transport, storage and communication (ISIC I), Other Activities (ISIC J-P).
6 EXIOBASE 1 and 2 followed this “country first” approach. EXIOBASE v.3 first reconciles trade, and imposes this balanced trade on country SUT (Stadler et al., in press).
7 Note that the UN SNA Main Aggregates database is an industry classification. Disaggregating this classification further using product classification may lead to minor inconsistencies, for example if the Main Aggregates primary industry “Agriculture” contains agricultural services that are reported as tertiary services in other classifications.
8 Strictly speaking, the use of the EXIOBASE (v.2.3) MRIO as an input into the global root construction constitutes a conceptual inconsistency. In principle, one could use the various data sources underlying EXIOBASE's disaggregation. However, some of these would be rather distant and therefore inadequate proxies for splitting value added (w*, as explained in Section 2.1). For example, for most economies UN Comtrade data constitute a small percentage of domestic economic activity. In any case, including EXIOBASE as a whole allows covering many disparate databases in one step.
9 Time series of these MRIO databases will be available for download at http://www.isa.org.usyd.edu.au/mrio/mrio.shtml/globalMRIOlab.
15 Note, however, that the adjustment of presentation format still matters from the viewpoint of national statistics, say, for GDP estimation. It would be less relevant only when it comes to analytical uses such as for the calculation of carbon footprints or trade in value-added. See Inomata (Citation2016) for a detailed description of the adjustment method for the AIOTs.
16 See also Dietzenbacher et al. (Citation2013a).
17 See Los (Citation2017) for examples of potential items on the agenda in the realm of international trade.
18 At the time of the Réunion meeting, I was Director of the Center for Global Trade Analysis, now I am the Director and Senior Economist of ImpactECON, where I continue to work on issues related to global economic modeling and MRIOs.