IMPLAN Blog

Introducing IMPLAN’s Time Series Data: Precision Across the Years

Posted by Chandler West on August 13, 2025

We’re pleased to announce the release of IMPLAN’s Time Series Data: your key to unlocking deeper understanding with historic consistency.

Time Series Data empowers you to move beyond one-year snapshots and start uncovering long-term economic trends with clarity and confidence. Whether you're analyzing regional economic growth, industry shifts, or policy outcomes, our Time Series Data gives you a foundation to build on.

Designed to provide more accurate, consistent, and transparent economic analysis from 2001 to 2022, our Time Series Data gives you the tools you need to understand economic impacts with more precision than ever before.

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Topics: Data, Economics, Impact

NAICS Codes 101: Understanding Industry Classification with IMPLAN

Posted by Chandler West on August 12, 2025

When you’re delving into economic analysis, you'll often encounter North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes. NAICS codes (pronounced like “snakes” without the “s”) are essential for categorizing businesses and understanding economic data. 

In today’s blog, we’ll break down what NAICS codes are, how they correspond with IMPLAN sectors, and why they matter for your economic impact analysis.

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Topics: Data, Economics, Technology, Methodology

What is IMPLAN?

Posted by IMPLAN Staff on August 12, 2025

So, you’re hoping to gain insight and quantify the impact of an industry, a new or existing business, expected growth or changes, or a specific event to the economy of a particular region. Where do you even begin?

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Topics: Data, Economics, Methodology

What Value do Community Events Provide?

Posted by Joe Demski on August 12, 2025

Local events that bring communities together for holidays or regional celebrations often become annual traditions deeply intertwined with an area’s identity. In recent years, however, some localities have halted events like holiday parades, block parties, and July Fourth fireworks due to increasing regulations and rising costs. The immediate savings are beneficial. However, the significant, positive effects these events have on local economies are being lost in the process. While few studies exist regarding the impact of non-tourist, community events on economies, the framework exists to reliably analyze their effects. Before jumping into the event analysis methodology however, there are several factors to assess.

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Topics: Data, Events, Economics, Methodology, Tourism, Impact

A Brief History of Input-Output

Posted by Vanessa Remmers on August 12, 2025

Late in the summer of 1949, Wassily Leontief fed the 25-ton computer the last of the stiff paper punched with precisely-placed holes. The machine at Harvard University now had hundreds of thousands of data points about the United States economy.

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Topics: Data, Spotlights, Economics, Methodology

Understanding IMPLAN: Input-Output Analysis & Assumptions

Posted by Joe Demski on June 27, 2025

IMPLAN is a platform that combines a set of extensive databases, economic factors, multipliers, and demographic statistics with a highly refined, customizable modeling system. The foundation upon which economic impact analyses are built is the input-output (I-O) model. Understanding I-O analysis and the assumptions they employ are crucial to properly performing and reporting your own analysis.

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Topics: Data, Economics, Technology, Methodology, Impact

Understanding the Farm Bill: How SNAP and Commodity Prices Shape America's Job Market and Economy

Posted by Bjorn Markeson & Chandler West on April 18, 2025

The Farm Bill is a comprehensive piece of legislation that governs various agricultural and food programs, including SNAP, and has significant implications for the agricultural sector and the broader economy.

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Topics: Data, Economics, Agriculture

Understanding IMPLAN: Direct, Indirect, and Induced Effects

Posted by Joe Demski on April 18, 2025

“How can $1 of spending support more than $1 in the local economy?”

We get questions like this about economic impact analyses all the time. The answer is very straightforward. The results of an input-output (I-O) analysis are broken down into direct, indirect, and induced effects. The combination of these overarching economic effects often total greater than the initial economic input. Each level of effects captures a different portion of the complete economic portrait. In order to understand the totality of an impact, you must conceptualize how each value is defined and what they represent.  

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Topics: Data, Economics, Technology, Methodology, Impact

Understanding IMPLAN: Multipliers

Posted by Joe Demski on April 18, 2025

The foundation upon which IMPLAN economic impact analyses are built is the input-output (I-O) model, and the basis for I-O models are multipliers. Multipliers are rates of change that describe how a given change in a particular industry generates impacts in the overall economy (e.g. for every dollar spent in the economy an additional $0.25 of economic activity is generated locally, implying a multiplier of 1.25). What multipliers represent and how they are calculated can vary significantly. 

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Topics: Data, Economics, Technology, Methodology, Impact

Understanding IMPLAN: The Application and Data

Posted by Sarah K. M. Gross on April 17, 2025

If you’re looking to conduct an economic impact analysis study, chances are someone like you has performed and published something similar using IMPLAN. Conversely, if you’re attempting to study something unlike anything else, between IMPLAN’s data, applications, and knowledgeable customer success and education services teams, you have all the tools you need to get started.

Developed by the United States Forest Service (USFS) in conjunction with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) over 40 years ago, IMPLAN boasts an unrivaled history of economic expertise. The USFS remains an active user of IMPLAN today along with a multitude of local, state, and federal government entities, a broad range of renowned academics, economic development entities, professional associations, consultants, and the United Nations.

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Topics: Data, Economics, Technology, Methodology, Impact

Why IMPLAN?

Put simply, IMPLAN is built for everyone.

Together, our software and data give you a window into your region of study — like one gigantic transaction log for the local economy. Chances are that if your project or business has a financial component, then IMPLAN can reveal some sometimes surprising detail about how your project relates to the local, state, or national economy.

What used to take economists weeks can be done in minutes. By anyone!

But you're not alone, IMPLAN's best benefits go beyond the work done in the tool:

  • Easy to learn and use
  • Outstanding customer support
  • Access to orientations, trainings, and project consultations
  • Instills confidence in your analyses

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