INTRODUCTION
The Impacts page is the second page that users will generally come to after the Regions page. The Impacts page is where users can enter project information for the region. This is where users enter values including output, employee compensation, labor income, etc. In this article we will go through the Impacts page and how it can be used within a project!
ACCESSING THE IMPACTS PAGE
To access the Impacts page, users have a few options. The most direct way to reach the Impacts page is from the IMPLAN Dashboard. Select the Impact icon located on the vertical navigation bar on the left side of the screen or use the Impacts tile on the Dashboard.
However, the most common way to reach Impacts is from Regions. After selecting a Region on the Region page, click Add to Impacts located on the bottom right of the screen. Learn more about this in the Overview of Regions article.
OVERVIEW
There are two panels on the Impacts page. The Events panel located in the center and the Groups panel on the right side of the screen.
EVENTS
The Events panel is where users set up Events for each economic activity that they wish to analyze. For each Event, users must specify the Title, Event Type, Specification, and at least one Event Value.
Add a new event using the +Add New Event button. First, add a Title to the event. Try to make it unique so that it can be referenced in the Results page. Then choose the Type of Event to run, by selecting the Event Type. To determine which is most appropriate to model the economic activity, reference this article on Explaining Event Types.
Next, is the Specification. The Specification list changes depending on the selected Event Type. For example, an Industry Event will include a list of all Industry codes and descriptions.
In order to run an analysis, there must be at least one Event Value. Similar to the Specification, the Event Value field will change depending on the Event Type selected. If there is more than one value for the Event, click the Advanced Fields icon to enter any additional Event Value fields or customizations. For more in-depth information reference the support article for each Event Type.
To duplicate or delete any Event that was created, click More Options on the Event. Event Tags can also be applied to Events by selecting the Add Tag to Event button. There can be up to 100 Event Tags per Project to help categorize Events.
On the Impacts page, there are a few more features on the top navigation bar. The Save button will allow users to save all Events before clicking Run. The Filter Tags button allows users to filter by any applied tag, making it easier to locate specific Events and drag only certain Events into certain Groups. The More Options button allows users to start and upload an Event Template, as well as delete tags or multiple selected Events.
GROUPS
The Groups panel indicates to IMPLAN where the defined economic activity is taking place. If the project started from the Regions page, the Selected Region will automatically appear in the Groups panel. IMPLAN will set the Group Dollar Year to the User Preferences default Dollar Year. IMPLAN has default settings for Dollar Year and Data Year. The Selected Region will populate according to the defaults, but can be changed within the Group. Note: this is not possible with Combined or Customized Regions.
When a project starts from the Impacts page, there will be a blank Group. Users can select the Data Year, Dollar Year, and Region for each Group. Note: only pre-built Regions will be available in the Region dropdown selection for the Group. To add another Group, click the +Add New Group button. More than one Group using the same Region is allowed as long as it has a different Data Year and/or Dollar Year and a different name.
To duplicate or delete any Group that was created, click More Options.
Each Group and each Event within a Group has a Scaling feature to multiply or “scale up” the entered values. This feature is locked on projects by default. Click on the Lock to enable the scaling function and overwrite the value of “1” for all Events within a Group or an individual Event within the Group. Be careful when using Event Scaling as this value will also be multiplied by the Group Scaling.
RUNNING A PROJECT
Now it is time to assign Events to Groups. To assign an Event, click the Drag Event icon, hold it, and drop it into the corresponding Group. The Multi-Select feature allows users to select more than one Event at a time. Each Group will indicate the number of assigned Events in the upper right corner by showing a number indicating the number of Events in that Group. To double check if an Event was correctly added to a Group, use the drop down arrow to view the assigned Events.
To run a Multi-Regional Input-Output Analysis (MRIO) check the MRIO box above the Groups panel. There must be at least two Groups in the same Data/Dollar Year combination with at least two distinct Regions to run an MRIO Analysis.
Once the Events are assigned to a Group, it is time to start the analysis. There are two options from the bottom of the Groups panel, users can Run or Preview a Project. Click Run to complete the analysis, then click View Results to move to the Results screen.
The Preview button allows users to see the sum of all Direct Effects from Events added to each Group without having to fully run the project. To complete the analysis, users still need to click Run. When the analysis is complete, the View Results will appear.
Next, check out the Results screen.
Written August 30, 2023
Updated December 13, 2024