Brief history of our own models

Our economic impact models have evolved with changes in IMPLAN and refinements we add with each new project. The original MI-REC system developed with support from the US Army Corps of Engineers was linked to the IMPLAN DOS program and oriented to water-based recreation. The system was gradually converted for use with the Windows version of IMPLAN (version 1.0) developed by MIG, Inc. and then overhauled extensively through a contract with Travel Michigan to develop a stand alone tourism economic impact estimator. The MITEIM model switched from a full I-O model approach to use of sector specific multipliers. These multipliers (extracted from IMPLAN models) were embedded into the MITEIM spreadsheet.  Spending categories were modified and segments to better fit general tourism applications were established as the defaults. The next major refinement was made in updating the National Park Service's Money Generation Model (MGM). The MITEIM model was adapted to typical National Park Visitor segments and the regional economic multipliers and spending data were further simplified through the development of "generic" spending and multiplier datasets.
    The model for the NPS was called MGM2. Neither the NPS nor our tourism clients have extensive regional economic expertise in-house, so we have provided some simpler ways of applying appropriate multipliers and economic ratios to spending estimates. Our experience has been that the largest sources of error in recreation and tourism economic impact estimates are first in the visit data (numbers and types of visitors) and secondly in spending data.  The I-O part of the problem, while the primary interest of regional economists, is not the most important part from the standpoint of how recreation and tourism impact estimates are used. Over time, we have therefore tried to draw more attention to estimation of visits and spending averages, and tried to simplify the handling of multiplier effects.
    The most common errors made by recreation and tourism analysts in using multipliers and I-O approaches are (1) applying state level and aggregate multipliers to local regions, (2) failure to correctly handle purchases of retail goods (margining and determining local production shares), (3) focusing too much on total effects without first pinning down direct effects, (4) relying too much on sales and jobs rather than income and value added as impact measures, and (5) simple misuse of multipliers.  By automating all of the margining and multiplier calculations on the spreadsheet model, we hopefully will reduce errors due to simple abuse of multipliers and calculation errors. Also by providing a range of "generic" multipliers and readily available multipliers for local areas, we should reduce a tendency to use state multipliers for local applications. Our MITEIM and MGM2 models also expand reporting of direct effects and provides total effects in a simpler more aggregate form. See the MITEIM and MGM2 pages for details. The MGM2 version has the most complete set of manuals and documentation.
 
 

MI-REC: Micro-Implan Recreation Economic Impact Estimation System The MI-REC system consists of two sets of utilities and customized procedures for estimating the economic impacts of recreation and tourism projects. MI-REC is designed to be used with Micro-IMPLAN, a regional economic modeling system developed by the USDA Forest Service and Minnesota IMPLAN Group. Currently there are two versions of IMPLAN systems available for analysts: the IMPLAN 91-F for DOS environment and IMPLAN Pro for Windows.

• MI-REC utilities for running economic impact analysis using IMPLAN Pro (for Windows) version 2.0 (utilities for version 1.1 is still available for download at site. this will load in a new window, close that window when done to return to this page)
• MI-REC utilities for running economic impact analysis using IMPLAN DOS version 91-F

• Economic multipliers for regions surrounding 108 US Army Corps of Engineer Projects
• Economic multipliers for 50 states of the U.S. (coming soon)