GEMPACK simulations in R: Ademonstration of running the GTAP modeland processing its results entirely in R using packages HARr and tabloToR

Abstract

With the newly available R packages tabloToR and HARr , it is now possible to run General Equilibrium Modelling PACKage (GEMPACK) models expressed in the TABLO language entirely in R without the need for a Fortran compiler, the GEMPACK software or any licenses. Working through a simple Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) simulation, we demonstrate how the simulation may be done in R and show that its results are virtually identical to those obtained in GEMPACK. With tabloToR and HARr offering a working replacement for GEMPACK, the packages could benefit those CGE modelers who are more comfortable working in R than in GEMPACK, and bring about benefits to the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modeling community through eliminating licensing costs and introducing additional efficiencies through easier integration and development of new features.