Bridging between economy-wide activity and household-level consumption data: Matrices for European countries

Area of Science:

• Economics
• Environmental Science
• Data Science

Background:

• Household budget surveys use consumption by purpose (COICOP) classification.
• National accounts and input-output tables use products by activity (CPA) classification.
• Differences in these classifications hinder integrated economic research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create bridging matrices between COICOP and CPA classifications.
• To facilitate data conversion between consumption- and production-based statistics.
• To support research integrating micro-level consumption data with macro-economic models.

Main Methods:

• Collected Eurostat data on household consumption for 35 COICOP and 63 CPA categories (2015).
• Applied matrix balancing techniques to construct concordance tables.
• Developed tables for 30 European countries.

Main Results:

• Generated publicly available bridging matrices for 30 European countries.
• Enabled conversion between COICOP and CPA statistical classifications.
• Facilitated integration of household expenditure micro-data with macro-economic and environmental analyses.

Conclusions:

• The dataset bridges a critical gap between consumption and production statistics.
• It supports advanced economic modeling (e.g., CGE, I-O) and environmental analyses (e.g., carbon footprint).
• Availability fosters research collaboration and enhances policy support tools.