The Gravity Portal, The Partial Equilibrium (PE) Modeling Portal, and The Trade in Value Added  (TiVA) Portalthe U.S. International Trade Commission’s (USITC) publicly disseminated economic modeling tools—have moved to the USITC’s “Staff Publications” webpage. 

The Gravity Portal is a comprehensive resource for researchers inside and outside the USITC to facilitate international trade research using large, downloaded datasets. It provides transparency for USITC studies that use this type of modeling; improves researchers’ access to data and analytical tools; and informs external users about USITC research products. The Gravity Modeling Environment’s curated data and computer programs estimate and simulate a variety of gravity models. 

The PE Modeling Portal provides an off-the-shelf tool based on economic theory for quick industry-level modeling applications. The 31 non-linear downloadable models can be applied to specific sectoral data and policy scenarios on a wide range of topics ranging from foreign direct investment market power to quotas and tariff-rate quotas. USITC staff designed the models in simple Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheets and Mathematica notebook files so anyone can use them while still benefiting from the models’ robust performance. User guides are also available.

The TiVA Portal is organized by TiVA initiative, providing an overview of the initiative, a summary of associated publications and data releases, and information specific to the NA-TiVA and APEC TiVA initiatives. The TiVA Resources page offers a collection of publications and tools for global value chain (GVC) and TiVA analysis, including background and working papers and instructional presentations and programs that users can employ in their own GVC/TiVA research.

The portals are popular with users worldwide and log thousands of visits each month. The three toolsets have also consistently generated accolades and feedback from users, with the Gravity Portal’s data sets alone being cited in more than 150 studies. 

Background

USITC staff created these innovative models and datasets so users with varying levels of skill and time could develop economic models. The models also demonstrate the scale of the USITC’s expertise and analytical capabilities related to economic modeling of trade policy. The models do not address customizations specific to individual USITC statutory reports and, although USITC staff provide advice on how the models work, advice is not provided on the results of the models or their policy implications. Please email us at gravity@usitc.govpemodeling@usitc.gov, or TiVA@usitc.gov if you have any questions about these economic modeling tools.