Economic Impact Analysis Services
Quantify and Communicate Your Impact
Silverlode Consulting provides rigorous, independent economic impact analysis services that help organizations measure their contributions to the economy, make informed decisions, strengthen funding requests, and communicate results to policymakers, boards, investors, community stakeholders, and funding partners.
For more than 25 years, we have provided economic and fiscal impact modeling for leading companies, healthcare systems, universities, industry associations, nonprofits, governments, and economic development agencies, completing hundreds of studies during our tenure.
Our studies use input-output analysis and/or other appropriate economic and fiscal modeling methods to estimate how operations, employment, capital investment, purchasing, visitor spending, and other economic activities flow through a regional economy.
Many of our studies also include detailed fiscal impact analysis, which estimates in detail how economic activities or events affect government revenues over time. The analysis can be tailored to address specific revenue sources, jurisdictions, development scenarios, and financing structures.
We translate complex economic and fiscal impact findings into clear, visual, and engaging reports, summaries, and presentations that help clients communicate clearly and confidently with key stakeholders.
Clients and Industries We Serve
Healthcare & Academic Medicine
Higher Education
Real Estate Development
Manufacturing & Industry
Energy & Infrastructure
Economic Development
Tourism, Events & Attractions
Government
Industry Associations
Nonprofits & Foundations
Experience Across Project Types
Organizations
Measure the current or future economic and fiscal impact of operations for companies, universities, nonprofits, research institutions, and other anchor organizations.
Capital Investments & Construction
Analyze the economic and fiscal impacts of past or future capital investments, including real estate developments, manufacturing facilities, energy installations, and infrastructure projects.
Visitor Spending & Tourism
Quantify the impact of conventions, conferences, attractions, festivals, sports venues, cultural institutions, destination assets, and other visitor-driven activity.
Industry Contributions
Assess the economic role of industry associations, individual industries, regional clusters, supply chains, and economic development initiatives.
Representative Economic Impact Studies
Cleveland Clinic
Economic impact studies for one of the nation’s leading health systems.
The University of Kansas Health System
Economic impact analysis for a major academic medical enterprise.
JumpStart
Impact analysis for entrepreneurship and economic development initiatives.
Ohio Craft Brewers Association
Industry impact analysis used for member, public, and legislative communications.
Lancaster Festival
Visitor and event-related economic impact analysis.
International experience
Economic impact work involving Great Britain, the Middle East, and other global contexts.
Why Work with Silverlode Consulting?
More than 25 years of experience
We have completed hundreds of economic and fiscal impact studies across industries, geographies, and project types.
Technically sound analysis
We design each study, define appropriate assumptions, collect and validate inputs, perform the modeling, test the results, and clearly explain the findings. Technology supports our work, but professional judgment and quality control remain central to every engagement.
Clear, engaging communication
We translate complex economic findings into reports, summaries, visuals, and presentations that are effective for both technical and non-technical audiences.
Custom, client-focused approach
We structure each engagement around how the client needs to use the results, whether for board decisions, grant applications, incentive requests, investor discussions, public messaging, or community engagement.
Global reach
Our work spans the United States and the globe.
Flexible methodology, tools, and geographies
Depending on the client’s goals, data, timeline, budget, and intended audience, we can use modeling tools such as IMPLAN and RIMS II, along with client data, surveys, benchmarks, and public data sources. We can model impacts at the national, state, regional, county, MSA, or custom regional level.
Fiscal impact and TIF expertise
Fiscal analysis is a core area of our expertise. We estimate public-sector revenues, prepare tax abatement and Tax Increment Financing projections, and develop independent TIF revenue reports to support bond financing, public approvals, and investment decisions.
Grant, incentive, and public funding expertise
We have decades of experience supporting grant, tax credit, and other economic incentive applications, public-private partnerships, and public investment decisions. Our experience includes Ohio’s Transformational Mixed-Use Development and Brownfield Remediation programs, the Texas Enterprise Fund, and the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation Act. We also prepare fiscal impact analyses, tax abatement and Tax Increment Financing projections, and independent TIF revenue reports that support public approvals and bond issuances.
Economic Impact in Detail
Economic impact analysis estimates how an organization, project, industry, event, or investment affects a local, regional, state, national, or international economy. It measures both the initial activity being studied and the ripple effects created as businesses purchase goods and services and workers spend their earnings.
Economic impact analysis typically reports three types of effects. Direct effects capture the activity being studied, such as an organization’s or event’s employment, payroll, and spending. Indirect effects capture purchases from suppliers and the resulting supply-chain activity. Induced effects capture household spending by workers whose earnings are supported by the direct and indirect activity.
The analysis converts these effects into practical measures, including economic output; gross regional product or value added; jobs supported; labor income; and federal, state, and local tax revenue.
Studies can also include detailed fiscal impact analysis, which estimates tax revenues and other public-sector benefits of importance to local governments, public agencies, and other stakeholders.
Economic impact studies commonly use input-output analysis, or I-O analysis, to trace how spending in one industry creates demand for goods, services, and labor across other parts of the economy. The methodology is widely accepted and is rooted in the pioneering work of economist Wassily Leontief, who received the 1973 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
Studies can be designed for the geography that best fits the intended audience and decision context, including national, state, regional, county, metropolitan statistical area, or custom-defined regions. Although scope varies, every study begins with a clear definition of the activity, geography, time period, and intended audience. Required inputs may include employment, payroll, operating expenditures, capital costs, visitor counts, and other activity data.
Economic impact analysis is also commonly described as an economic impact study, economic contribution analysis, economic impact statement, economic benefit statement, or fiscal impact analysis, depending on the scope, audience, and purpose of the work.
Every engagement begins by defining the decisions the study must support, the appropriate geography and time period, the available data, and the audiences for the findings. We then develop and validate the inputs, select the appropriate economic and fiscal modeling methods, test the results, and present the findings in a clear report, executive summary, presentation, or other client-ready format.
Ready to Measure Your Economic Impact?
Whether you are evaluating current operations, a proposed development, an industry, an event, or a major investment, Silverlode can design an economic impact study tailored to your objectives, geography, audience, data, and timeline. Contact us to discuss your project and the decisions your analysis needs to support.