Expanding Eurostat’s FIGARO MRIO database: industry disaggregation, and environmental and labour extensions
Researcher:
Cazcarro Castellano, Ignacio
Congress:
29th International Input-Output Association (IIOA) Conference
Participation type:
Comunicación oral
Other authors:
Arkaitz USUBIAGA, Iñaki ARTO, Ignacio CAZCARRO, Erik DIETZENBACHER, Pablo PINERO, Maria Victoria ROMÁN, José M. RUEDA-CANTUCHE
Year:
2023
Location:
Alghero, Sardinia, Italy
Despite the existence of various MRIO databases, the policy uptake of the results is limited.
Multi-database comparisons have reported relevant differences in the monetary structure,
extensions and footprint results of the main MRIO databases. In order to overcome some of
these problems, some countries have combined official data produced by their national
statistical offices with existing MRIO databases to decrease their country uncertainty of the
results, while at the same time increasing their acceptability for policy uses. Despite these
exceptions, countries still lack MRIO databases consistent with their national statistics.
While the OECD and Eurostat have produced their own ‘official’ MRIO databases (namely ICIO
and FIGARO), these still lack sufficient sectoral detail and environmental and social extensions
to more accurately represent environmental footprints. For instance, having a single
agricultural sector is problematic when calculating carbon footprints because the emission
profiles of the underlying products are very different.
Against this background, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) funded a
project to build a high-resolution MRIO database based on Eurostat’s FIGARO database, which
was to include energy, air emission and labour extensions. The main novelty of FIGARO-e (or
FIGARO extended) is that is largely consistent with official statistics, thereby substantially
increasing its potential use in policy. This first version of the database covers the year 2015,
and represents 46 countries (plus a rest of the world region), 176 industries and 213 products.
It includes a labour extension split by gender and skill, two energy extensions and four
extensions for greenhouse (GHG) gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and
fluorinated gases).
Despite the existence of various MRIO databases, the policy uptake of the results is limited.
Multi-database comparisons have reported relevant differences in the monetary structure,
extensions and footprint results of the main MRIO databases. In order to overcome some of
these problems, some countries have combined official data produced by their national
statistical offices with existing MRIO databases to decrease their country uncertainty of the
results, while at the same time increasing their acceptability for policy uses. Despite these
exceptions, countries still lack MRIO databases consistent with their national statistics.
While the OECD and Eurostat have produced their own ‘official’ MRIO databases (namely ICIO
and FIGARO), these still lack sufficient sectoral detail and environmental and social extensions
to more accurately represent environmental footprints. For instance, having a single
agricultural sector is problematic when calculating carbon footprints because the emission
profiles of the underlying products are very different.
Against this background, the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) funded a
project to build a high-resolution MRIO database based on Eurostat’s FIGARO database, which
was to include energy, air emission and labour extensions. The main novelty of FIGARO-e (or
FIGARO extended) is that is largely consistent with official statistics, thereby substantially
increasing its potential use in policy. This first version of the database covers the year 2015,
and represents 46 countries (plus a rest of the world region), 176 industries and 213 products.
It includes a labour extension split by gender and skill, two energy extensions and four
extensions for greenhouse (GHG) gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and
fluorinated gases).