A MICROCONSISTENT EQUILIBRIUM DATA SET FOR CANADA FOR USE IN TAX POLICY ANALYSIS

In this paper we describe a micro consistent data set for Canada for 1972, assembled with general equilibrium tax policy analysis in mind. We stress the methodology used and in a number of tables report its main features.
In the data set the separate detail contained in input-output transactions tables, national accounts, household income and expenditure data, taxation statistics, foreign trade statistics, flow of funds and other sources is adjusted for mutual consistency. The final result is a micro consistent data set in which demands equal supplies for all products, zero profit conditions hold for industries and all agents' demands satisfy their budget constraints.
The motivation for data assembly is the currently widely used practice of calibrating "empirical" general equilibrium models so as to exactly reproduce a base year data observation as an equilibrium model solution. This procedure enables empirically based models to evaluate counterfactual equilibria in a way which corresponds to comparative static analysis in theoretical literature.
More detail on the data set is available on request in appendices deleted from the published version of this paper due to space constraints.