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Getting Started: WiNDC Build Stream

Overview

The WiNDC build routine is a collection of GAMS programs that generate subnational economic accounts for input-output or computable general equilibrium models of the United States economy. All code and data necessary for producing subnational accounts are provided in this repository. Currently, the routine can produce state level accounts with one representative agent per region and with disaggregated consumer accounts.

Core

We begin with the national input-output table of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) and downscale to the regional level using publicly available economic statistics from government agencies. We use additional data from the BEA on regional gross product and consumer expenditures and data from the Census Bureau on foreign trade and state government expenditures. We show how to combine publicly available data from these sources and other government agencies to compile a database that serves as input data for the core WiNDC buildstream. The core WiNDC buildstream generates the core WiNDC database. The database contains multisectoral subnational economic datasets for the years 1997 to 2021.

Household

The WiNDC household buildstream is an extension to the core WiNDC buildstream. The core WiNDC database features a state level dataset with a single represenatative agent per region. This dataset provides a means for a spatially denominated distributional analysis, but not for an analysis within consumer types. There are various methods that may be used to disaggregate consumer accounts. We approach this problem from the income side and generate two version of the household dataset: one is based on the Current Population Survey (CPS) from the Census Bureau and the other is based on the Statistics of Income (SOI) from the IRS. Both versions of the dataset use some information from the other data source and delineate five household types per region. The household datasets cover the years 2015 to 2021.

GTAPWiNDC

The third part of the WiNDC buildstream is the GTAP WiNDC buildstream. The GTAP Consortium provides a documented, publicly available, global, general equilibrium data base. It also conducts seminars on a regular basis to inform the research community about how to use the data in applied economic analysis.

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Documentation Links

Note

The GAMS code is platform-independent. But requires GAMS version 38 or higher.

The files for generating each of the WiNDC modules are detailed in the documentation.