Multiplier Specification under User Preferences
I have a small question about when it is acceptable to change the default selections of Multiplier Specification under the "Multipliers" tab of user preferences (I am using the IMPLAN Pro software, not online).
My colleague who has handled most of our IMPLAN work until I went through training instructed me to check an additional two boxes when setting up my software: the "Enterprises (Corporations)" box and the "Capital" box. I didn't think much of it at the time because I was so new to IMPLAN. However, in my recent conversation with my customer success lead at IMPLAN I inquired about it and was told that it could lead to inflating my results and I was strongly encouraged to not have them checked.
I brought this advice back to my colleague, and he mentioned that he was told by someone at IMPLAN a while ago that the reasoning behind having the corporations box unchecked was for smaller geographies such as counties or congressional districts, things like corporate profits would likely come from out of the area and if it was checked then it would create an issue. He was also told that in a geography such as the whole country or even several states, if you know that the corporate headquarters are located in the geography it is understating the impacts to leave these unchecked, and that it essentially comes down to being either conservative or liberal in your estimates. But he certainly conceded that someone from IMPLAN would certainly know more than him and he was doing it in a way that he remembers being told by someone at IMPLAN.
My initial gut reaction is to err on the side of being conservative and do as my CSL suggested. However, I would be interested in learning the function behind selecting these different options and when it might be advisable to do one over the other. Is there any IMPLAN articles on these? When would it make more sense to include these in the multiplier specification and when would it not make sense?
Thank you in advance for your help!
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Thank you for your post,
This is a great question! You are correct in that by default all of the Household Income types are checked or included. The list of institutions in this view determine how the induced Multiplier is defined.
You could include any of the Institutions (households, government, and capital), but the standard practice (and the default in IMPLAN) is to internalize households only; that is, to capture the household spending of Labor Income but not the spending of tax revenues or returns to capital.
Thank you,
IMPLAN Staff,
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