Economics and environment : modeling global linkages

Analyzing global supply chains and their associated environmental impacts requires the availability of international multi-sector databases. This thesis presents a methodology for constructing international supply-use tables and consolidated supra-national supply-use tables that are internally consistent and use the correct prices. For both types of tables, it is investigated to what extent using these tables improves the estimation of impacts compared to results obtained from using more simplistic models or more aggregated data. The differences are substantial. To underscore the importance of international relations, the international supply-use model is also used to analyze the raw materials import dependency of countries. The dependency of countries on raw materials supplied by a small set of fast growing economies may cause problems in the future.