Beyond Aggregation Bias: The Importance of Consistency with Official Statistics in MRIO-Based Carbon Footprints
This paper demonstrates that significant inconsistencies between academic multi-regional input-output (MRIO) databases and official statistics can cause carbon footprint estimates for European countries to deviate by up to 44%, a discrepancy termed "official statistics consistency bias" that often outweighs the sectoral aggregation bias these databases aim to resolve.