IMPLAN Blog

Many fail and few succeed when it comes to breaking ground on development projects as complicated as those in the mixed-use category. Some languish, some fail, and others suffer hostile take-downs. Still, there are a handful of foreseeable pitfalls which you can easily dodge while in the planning phase of a project. Here are a few of these traps that we’ve observed and how best to avoid them.

Economic data flows and collects from sources both varied and unique. But which sources are significant and why? And how complex does this world of big data get when it comes to trying to explore the economic landscape? Cue Ms. Frizzle’s “Seatbelts, everyone!” line and let’s take a tour of economic data sources on the Magic School Bus!

The explosion of social media is a gold mine, especially for Economic Development Corporation’s (EDCs).

Why, you ask?

Ever since the likes of IBM’s Watson, Google Trends, and Bloomberg Terminal emerged, data-driven decision making shifted from fad to fixture in the business world. But the fundamental shift that big data made in the world of research didn’t change which questions to ask, but rather how we ask those questions. Or, as Douglas Adams might say, you need to really know what you’re asking before you switch on Deep Thought.

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.