FAQ

1. Why can I not Margin Industries I once was able to apply Margins to?

The only marginable industries are Retail and Wholesale Industries.  You are no longer be able to margin non-retail/wholesale industries because the margins that were being used were simply for the Industry’s margin on its “primary Commodity.” This change is to ensure more accuracy. Now, when the item purchased is known, a Commodity Output Event should be modeled using the purchased item as the Specification and Margins can be applied if appropriate. 

2. Where Margins can be applied, how do I apply Margins?

The options for applying Margins or not applying Margins are now labeled “Total Revenue” and “Marginal Revenue”, respectively. More information can be found in the article Margins & Deflators.

3. Why are my Induced results different in the newest release of IMPLAN?

Seeing differing Induced Effects when comparing the results of the same Impact on the same geography and year of data in the new release of IMPLAN to past versions, is due to methodology improvements to the IMPLAN Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). One of the largest changes we've incorporated is to use gross commuting flows as opposed to net commuting flows. This means for all regions where there is both in-commuters and out-commuters, the In-Commuting Rate will be larger in the current version of IMPLAN (app.implan.com), reducing Induced Effects in the Impact Results.

This is because in these cases, total in-commuting dollars is always larger than net in-commuting dollars because net in-commuting dollars = total in-commuting dollars - out-commuting dollars.

Previously, net in-commuting dollars were divided by total Employee Compensation (EC) in the region to calculate an In-Commuting Rate. Now total in-commuting dollars are divided by total EC to generate an In-Commuting Rate. For single-region analysis, the In-Commuting Rate is applied as a reduction, along with the Payroll Tax reduction, to any Employee Compensation value (in any Event that generates Employee Compensation to the region) before it is run through the region as Household Income. This reduction represents the assumed leakage from workers in the Study Area leaving the Region to go home, where they spend their money. Some of the other SAM changes could have a positive effect on Induced Effects, so the overall effect won't always be a reduction in Induced Effects.

Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) analysis uses commuting data to track where in-commuters live so there is no change to the way MRIO results are calculated.

Other SAM changes include:

Previously, sub-national SAMs consolidated all commuting in the Domestic Trade account. Now, foreign commuting stays in the Foreign Trade account. Some payments to government have been reclassified, e.g., rents and royalties are paid from Other Property Income (OPI) to government, rather than from Taxes on Production and Imports (TOPI) to government. Such changes serve to align IMPLAN SAMs with the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s (BEA) National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) and to improve the quality of tax impact results.

4. How do I import Events from Excel?

The feature to import the Event Template into IMPLAN is outlined in the article Using the Event Template. 

5. How do I search for my Industry using a NAICS code or description?

Currently you can search for Industries by NAICS codes and descriptions using this Excel file. 

6. I recently ran an MRIO analysis that is identical to one I have run before. But, this time I got different results. Why?

When using MRIO, there is a less burdensome (but still realistic) assumption on the system with regard to trade between regions. Specifically, the threshold at which an MRIO analysis in IMPLAN considers the dollars of Commodities and/or Employee Compensation being traded between regions to be sufficiently small and subsequently stops processing any further rounds of calculations. Explicitly, we changed this threshold from $0.01 (one penny) to $100 (one hundred dollars).

This is to say, for example, that if the effects of trade between Region A and Region B are being calculated, IMPLAN will stop processing calculations once it reaches the point at which less than $100 of Commodities and/or Employee Compensation are transferring between them.

This means that you will see more conservative estimates. In instances in which this change does affect a study’s results, how big will the difference in them be? Well, we ran back-to-back MRIO analyses to find out; one prior to changing the threshold, and one afterwards. We ran two hypothetical 3-region MRIO analyses in which a $10 million change in total Output was modeled. The difference in results between the first and second analysis equated to < 0.5% (less than one half of one percent).

We recognize that some analysts may still ask, "Well, my Direct Effects are far less than $10 million. Wouldn't the observed change in results be greater in scenarios where Direct Effects (in this case, a change in total Output) are smaller?" Well, we ran back-to-back MRIO analyses to test this as well. We ran two more hypothetical MRIO analyses (with 2 regions this time) in which a $190,000 change in total Output was modeled. In this instance, the difference in results between the first and second analysis equated to approximately 0.5% (again, one half of one percent).

Updated February 11, 2020