Santa Rosa County Tourism Market Economic Impact Study

The University of West Florida’s Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development completed a visitor profile of those who travel to Santa Rosa County by incorporating the REMI PI+ model. This study concluded a yearlong effort to survey Santa Rosa County’s tourists and quantify their impact on the community. Researchers modeled a total loss scenario in which the county’s economy is forced to adjust after the elimination of the spending done by its visitors while utilizing survey and bed tax data to estimate the total number of annual visitors to the region. By using the direct spending estimate of Santa Rosa County’s overnight tourists as the input into the PI+ model, the analysis determined the total economic impact of tourism in terms of total employment, population, labor force, output, value added, personal income, and disposable personal income, both in 2017 and over the course of ten years. This assessment also evaluated the economic impact of overnight tourists by season and by industry.

University of West Florida – Santa Rosa Tourism Market Economic Impact Study [full PDF]

2018 Tax Preference Performance Reviews: Investment Projects in High Unemployment Counties and Community Empowerment Zones

The Washington State Joint Legislative Audit Review Committee (JLARC) incorporated the REMI Tax-PI model into their preliminary report in order to estimate the economic impacts for one tax preference review from a previously published report. The Tax-PI model accounts for direct, indirect, and induced effects as they spread through the state’s economy, allowing for users to simulate the full impact of tax policy change over time. JLARC staff members analyzed the employment impacts associated with Washington’s sales and use tax deferral for investment projects in high unemployment counties and community empowerment zones. To perform this analysis, researchers utilized a two-step method to modeling the employment impacts of the state’s tax preference and modeled three scenarios that display the range of potential employment effects that would result from the tax policy change.

Washington State Joint Legislative Audit Review Committee – 2018 Tax Preference Performance Reviews: Investment Projects in High Unemployment Counties and Community Empowerment Zones [full PDF]

Measuring the Impact of the Steel Tariffs on the U.S. Economy

The Coalition for a Prosperous America assessed the economic impact of the steel tariffs signed into law in March of 2018 by utilizing the REMI PI+ model to produce their own employment forecasts that could be compared against other simulations. Researchers simulated the impact on the price of imported steel was 12.5 percent in 2018 and 25 percent each year after. They found that before the tariffs were imposed, manufacturers were producing at less than full capacity, but with the tariffs in place, domestic producers can now compete with imports as output increases without requiring additional productive capacity. The Coalition’s analysis also evaluated two rebate scenarios for recycling tariff revenue back into the industry, as well as explaining how they adjusted pricing, investment, and employment to more accurately reflect the current state of the U.S. economy.

Coalition for a Prosperous America – Measuring the Impact of the Steel Tariffs on the US Economy [full PDF]

Dania Beach: Economic Impacts of Sea Level Rise and Coastal Storms

AECOM developed a report analyzing the coastal hazards facing the business community of Dania Beach, Florida. The study utilized the REMI model to present estimates of economic costs that could occur from failing to take action to protect Dania Beach’s businesses from future storm surge and sea level rise impacts. Researchers also evaluated the economic benefits from adaption actions that mitigate future coastal hazards to the City’s commercial core. In addition to consideration of the costs and benefits of protective investments to reduce future hazard risks, it is also important to consider the opportunities for advancing economic resilience in communities like Dania Beach. This study illustrates that advancing economic resilience requires action by both the public and private sector at various geographic scales, while explaining that both communities have a shared interest in partnering on this front.

AECOM – Dania Beach: Economic Impacts of Sea Level Rise and Coastal Storms [full PDF]

Housing Underproduction in California: Economic, Fiscal and Environmental Impacts of Enabling Transit-Oriented Smart Growth to Address California’s Housing Affordability Challenge

ECONorthwest and the Up for Growth National Coalition collaborated on this study of housing development patterns and outcomes in the state of California between the years of 2000 and 2015. Researchers were the first to use the REMI model to simulate large-scale housing development in order to analyze its impact on regional economies. The study incorporated two scenarios (Smart Growth, More of the Same) and compared those approaches when applied to the development of 3.4 million housing units in California. This assessment found that the Smart Growth scenario delivers greater economic benefits, provides more tax revenue-generating units, and requires less infrastructure by adding additional housing to the densest areas in transit corridors.

ECONorthwest, Up for Growth – Housing Underproduction in California: Economic, Fiscal and Environmental Impacts of Enabling Transit-Oriented Smart Growth to Address California’s Housing Affordability Challenge [full PDF]