The Evaluation Team recruited the assistance of the REMI PI+ model to forecast employment impacts across 70 industry sectors inside the state of Wisconsin that could be affected by energy efficiency legislation. Over the period of study, the Focus on Energy programs would generate approximately 6,500 jobs and produce a net benefit of $940,937,500 for the state’s economy by 2037, making it appear to be a cost effective solution.
The REMI PI+ model was incorporated into this study of immigration policy reform to display the macroeconomic effects and economic implications of the Path to Legal Status, high-skilled (H-1B) visa expansion, and changes in lesser-skilled visa programs (H-2A, H-2B, and W-1 Visas). The report focused on three central elements of immigration legislation (the pathway to legal status, the expansion of high-skilled visas, the expansion of lesser-skilled visas) and found that, in each of the three cases, there were increases in employment and gross domestic product for the analysis period of 2014-2045 on a state-by-state level. The economic effect of the proposed immigration reform bill was determined to be paramount in an economy with a national unemployment rate of 7.6 percent and local expansion encompasses not only the H-1B employees, but also additional positions within the firm that will employ the general workforce. It was also discovered that an expansion in lesser-skilled visas, particularly as there are stringent new requirements to demonstrate the unavailability of domestic workers, leads to increased economic productivity and output.
REMI Policy Insight was used by the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council in their joint report with the University of Florida Geoplan Center to calculate the employment effects and projections for two land use scenarios for a 10-county region in Central Florida. The first scenario, the Trend, illustrated future land use patterns if existing policy and development tendencies continued and the second scenario, the Composite, illustrated future land use patterns using values and assumptions gained from the results of the How Shall We Grow, “4C’s Regional Vision”, a regional visioning effort in East Central Florida completed in 2007. Under the trend scenario assumptions of new oil prices and new regional developments, the study region would add an average of 18,760 jobs more than the baseline scenario. However, the composite scenario would add even more employment opportunities due to development taking place near transit stations and people realizing the cost savings from public transportation and the amenity of living and working close by.
This report documented an analysis performed by The Mid-Region Council of Governments regarding the economic impact of the New Mexico Rail Runner Express to the region it served using the REMI TranSight model. For this project, a five-region model was developed that included Bernalillo, Sandoval, Valencia, and Santa Fe Counties and the rest of New Mexico, which allowed for analysis of inter-county commuting along the Rail Runner line. Some key aspects of commuter rail service were summarized in this report such as the economic impact of improved network efficiency and operations and maintenance expenditures on the region. It was estimated that a more efficient network and operations and maintenance spending created 845 jobs, improved the health care, retail trade and construction industries, decreased employment growth due to increases in efficiency of service, and raised the gross regional product by $1.2 billion over 15 years.
Due to little available information on regional economic effects of a toll road using toll rate scenarios, this paper was created to explore the economic impacts of a toll road under different scenarios using the REMI model. The report forecasted annual toll transactions and revenue estimations for the 2009-2030 period and measured positive and negative economic impacts of toll revenues on state employment, income, and gross state product using a potential toll plaza in West Virginia. The estimation results indicated that toll rate increases generally led to smaller transactions of vehicles, and higher toll rates resulted in a larger reduction in traffic volume long-term. Analysts also discovered positive net economic impacts for all toll rate scenarios on state employment, income, and gross state product, suggesting that the benefits of the tolling largely overshadow the costs for a region.
