Full-scale, near real-time multi-regional input–output table for the global emerging economies (EMERGING)

Multi-regional input–output (MRIO) models are widely used to analyze the economic interdependencies between regions in the context of global trade and environmental research. MRIO tables enable us to teleconnect the sectors in different regions along the supply chain and track both direct and indirect impacts of global production. Yet emerging economies—despite reshaping international trade patterns and playing an increasingly important role in the world economy—are not adequately represented in existing MRIO databases, which lack key detail on countries and sectors. To bridge this gap, our study presents EMERGING: Up-to-date and full-scale MRIO tables covering 135 sectors in 245 economies over the period from 2015 to 2019. We describe in detail the steps in the development of the database and reconciliation and validation of bilateral trade data and national statistics. The EMERGING database is also designed to incorporate more official and publicly available data from national statistical institutes to ensure a high level of data quality, especially for these economies. We compare both national production-based and consumption-based value added generated from the EMERGING MRIO with the results from four major MRIO databases. Although global value-added accounts are similar across databases, we find significant discrepancies at the level of individual countries and sectors concerning conflicting benchmark data.