IMPLAN Blog

There’s never an easy path to affecting policy change whether we’re talking on the national, state, or local level. But among the tools available to give clarity to the conversation, economic contribution and economic impact analyses rank among the most widely used.

Funding. It’s a word that strikes fear in public and private institutions alike. An almost sisyphean task that repeats on daily, monthly, annual cycles without end. It echos on the radio, online, in emails from museums, charities, and alma maters. And in the end, how do you know if the chase for funding had the desired, tangible effect?

IMPLAN can be used to quantify the impact of a given industry on its local economy, including ones as varied and nuanced as Tourism.

Late last year, we published an example of this—a case study highlighting how the City of Baltimore and the Waterfront Partnership illustrated the need for reinvestment in its Inner Harbor using impact analysis. Much news media attention and high level support (from the city’s then-mayor and the CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee) for the reinvigoration of the harbor was garnered as a result of the analysis using IMPLAN data. You can read that case study here.

So, you’re a business professional, consultant, researcher, or local government or agency 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.

You're going to want to choose a widely used database and software package that uses input-output analysis based on interdependencies of economic sectors.

In 2015, a study released by Bootstrap Solutions with help from the University of Nevada-Reno outlined the economic benefits brought to Idaho by the Idaho Army National Guard in the Treasure Valley. Results from this study found that the annual activities of the Idaho Army National Guard supported 2,800 direct and indirect jobs and contributed more than $155 million to the local economy. The study appeared sound and was very well-received. That’s when things got interesting.

Tale of twenty cities

Only weeks ago Amazon announced the top 20 candidate cities still in the running to capture the lofty honor of being home to Amazon’s second headquarters—or ‘HQ2’. Amazon culled their short list from a whopping 238 bids since the deadline for submissions in mid-October 2017. Factors affecting the decision process included proximity to a city center, quality of commute for potential workers, proximity to an airport, demographic diversity, and an emphasis on revitalizing an existing building rather than moving into something newly-constructed.

It's that time of year again... It's data season at IMPLAN!

This week saw the release of IMPLAN’s Panel Data, which opens up new opportunities for statistical, shift share, or industry growth analyses—to name just a few.

You've commissioned an economic impact analysis to give your organization the edge it needs in its fight to develop your local economy. But before you start making claims and promoting your study's results, make sure they're accurate.

It's not youR STUDY, it's your data.

You need data. And an analytical tool to help put it to use. We’ve got both.