IMPLAN Blog

No two sectors (or businesses) are alike. One fundamental differentiator is that some sectors make goods and some sectors distribute goods as a service. This simple but substantial distinction can significantly affect the quality or range of your results while modeling economic impacts.

Barely more than a year ago, e-scooters suddenly flooded city streets across the country. But their presence wasn’t always met with enthusiasm. Antagonistic cities and towns cited public health concerns, street congestion, and even harassment as cause for banning the popular short-trip transportation option altogether.

When scooters swooped into Richmond, Virginia overnight last August, battle lines emerged just as fast. Like other cities where the electric, dockless flock cropped up with little to no warning, some decried while others praised the newcomers. Several groups of residents urged government leaders to roll out the welcome mat instead of red tape, but politicians voiced concerns about safety as they issued directives to squash the permit-less scooters.  

There are several advantages to using MRIO in place of traditional single-region input-output analysis techniques. Mainly, MRIO exposes the connections and dependencies between regional economies by allowing individual regional identities to be maintained as a part of a broader regional analysis. In IMPLAN, results are filterable so that in an MRIO analysis, the incoming trade to a region can be isolated from or aggregated to the local impacts of the larger surrounding region.

2018 is over.

2019 is here.

Honestly, where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday we were conversing about the 2016 IMPLAN Data Release Notes, discovering why robots aren’t actually killing jobs, and surviving the hurricanes by exploring the history of hurricanes in North Carolina.

Seriously, it has been a year to remember here at IMPLAN. These past 12 months we experienced growth internally and externally and found inspiration in every direction we looked. In that time we have also published more than 30 articles on our site, with a few standing apart from the others.

Which blogs stood apart from the others? The ones people felt inspired and intrigued by the most? Here are the 5 most popular blog posts of 2018 on the IMPLAN Blog:

We talk a lot about economic impact analysis here but the question of economic impact is only one part of a multifaceted reality.

Researchers at the Michigan Department of Transportation had a different type of question. They didn’t want to just know about the jobs that could be created from constructing trails. They didn’t want to just know about tourism and retail spending that comes when people ride bikes or walk on those trails.

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:

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.

Demand for jet engines is taking off. Domestic airlines have relied on up-fitting or remodeling equipment originally constructed in the 1970s or later. This generation of equipment is slowly approaching its expiry. And internationally, travel tastes have changed. Airlines are one-upping each other to offer the most top-of-the-line luxury flights which are incorporating features including personal compartments with beds, full-service bars, and incredible food options.

Amazon recently announced that it would be raising the minimum wage paid to workers to $15 per hour (minimum wage standards sometimes vary by state and city; the current federal minimum pay is $7.25). According to the company’s blog, the wage increase will go into effect on 1 November, will be extended to associates employed by temp agencies, and is anticipated to affect the paychecks of more than 250,000 Amazon employees, as well as more than 100,000 seasonal holiday employees. Workers at Amazon subsidiaries (including Whole Foods) will also benefit from the parent company’s new initiative to “lead on pay.”