IMPLAN Blog

It’s important to keep an eye on economic diversity, especially in times of economic uncertainty and when supply and demand are shifting. The Shannon-Weaver index is a powerful tool for measuring how evenly or unevenly the employment in any region is distributed among its industries. In today’s blog, we’re exploring how the S-W index works in IMPLAN and what it means for your economic impact studies.

It’s important to keep an eye on economic diversity, especially in times of economic uncertainty and when supply and demand are shifting. The Shannon-Weaver index is a powerful tool for measuring how evenly or unevenly the employment in any region is distributed among its industries. In today’s blog, we’re exploring how the S-W index works in IMPLAN and what it means for your economic impact studies.

An enormous variety of factors are at play in any given economy, and there are countless measuring tools and data sets that can help us better understand what is happening in our economic environment. In times of great change, like we’re experiencing now in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be helpful to take a step back and look at the big picture. IMPLAN data sets provide very granular geographic and industrial levels of detail, with consistent data estimates spanning from 2001 to the most recent IMPLAN data year. These micro data can be used in concert with macro data from other sources to gain a rich understanding of local and regional economies, as well as the national economy. In today’s blog, we’re looking at some measurements that can be used alongside IMPLAN data to gain a better sense of the big picture.

2020 was an unusual year for sure — the pandemic, the great resignation, working remote, and more. IMPLAN's 2020 data holds a tremendous amount of valuable economic intelligence. 

Data season has finally come to a close which means that the latest IMPLAN Data Year is now available! Here's what's new in this data release:

1. Intro

In recent years, there has been growing interest in using multiregional social accounting matrix (SAM) models. These models require reliable estimates of inter-regional trade. Because detailed data on the commodity-specific trade between counties are not available, several estimation techniques have been used.