For decades, IMPLAN has empowered organizations to understand the ripple effects of economic activity. Until now, that view has centered on backward linkages: how industries support others through what they purchase. But today, we’re proud to announce a breakthrough that flips the script.

With the release of IMPLAN’s Forward Linkages Insights, you can now follow the story in the other direction, capturing how price changes and industry contributions cascade forward through supply chains, shaping costs, outputs, and opportunities across the broader economy.

This isn’t just another feature update. It’s a new lens for economic impact analysis, unlocking downstream effects in ways never before possible in IMPLAN.

Navigating Tariff Shocks, Transportation Bottlenecks, and Energy Price Swings

Economic volatility is the new normal. Tariff shocks, transportation bottlenecks, energy price swings, and resource risks can change the cost structure of entire industries overnight. In fact, a recent tariff-driven disruption caused U.S. wholesale prices to spike 0.9% in a single month – the largest jump in over three years.

Until now, measuring the forward impacts of those shifts was a challenge. Analysts could see what went into an industry, but not how its price changes reverberated outward. IMPLAN’s Forward Linkages Insights changes that.

Inside the Forward Linkages Suite

Let’s take a look at what’s included in this new offering from IMPLAN:

Price Change (Cost-Push) Insights
Model the effects of pricing shifts by entering a percentage change or before-and-after prices for a good or service. See how these changes cascade forward through supply chains, shaping costs across industries.

Downstream Contribution Insights
Understand the value industries create beyond their immediate outputs. Trace contributions through downstream effects, quantifying impacts on output, GDP, and employment.

Downstream Multipliers
Every new IMPLAN model build (as well as existing models used with forward linkages) now comes preloaded with downstream multipliers, revealing how industries push value forward. Compare scenarios, benchmark influence, and integrate these insights with upstream analysis for a true 360° perspective.

Who Benefits

• Businesses can prepare for tariff impacts, optimize pricing strategies, and anticipate supply chain risks.

•  Policymakers and agencies can forecast the ripple effects of regulatory changes or international trade dynamics.
  
  
• Researchers and analysts can uncover hidden value chains, strengthen forecasts, and expand economic insights beyond traditional boundaries.

Real-World Applications

The Forward Linkages Suite opens up powerful real-world applications across industries and policy. Businesses and analysts can model how strikes, tariffs, or natural disasters disrupt supply chains and drive cost increases throughout the economy. They can also demonstrate how technological innovations lower costs across value chains, supporting smarter adoption and investment. By assessing transportation cost shifts (whether in shipping, trucking, or other modes), users gain clarity on how logistics risks affect end prices. The tool also helps anticipate volatility from environmental resource risks like climate change, disease, or ecological disruption, while quantifying the long-term cost benefits of sustainable investments in energy-saving technologies. Finally, it enables organizations to track how tariff-driven price changes in U.S.-made goods propagate forward through supply chains, offering sharper insights for sourcing, pricing, and policy.

A 360° View of the Economy

For years, IMPLAN has given you the tools to understand how industries are connected through what they buy. With the Forward Linkages Suite, you now have the power to measure how industries are connected through what they supply. You can measure how they shape costs, value, and activity across the economy.

This is more than a new feature. It’s a turning point for economic impact analysis, equipping decision-makers with sharper foresight and deeper understanding in an era of unprecedented volatility.

See the future ripple forward.