IMPLAN Pro: Types of Activities

Industry Change- Indicates that you know what industry or industries are experiencing the change in production and you are interested in targeting those specific industries. 

Commodity Change- You would use if you knew there was a change in commodity demand or production but didn't know what Industry or Institution (e.g., government) would meet the demand. For example, you know there will be an increased need for nursing home-care in the region because of an aging population, but you don't know what the mix of private hospitals, nursing homes, and government hospitals will provide this need.

Labor Income Change- If you had a change in labor payments isolated from Industry production- e.g. examining the impacts of a wage increase for current employees.

Total Income should include all new labor payments in the Study Area-
New income for all workers in the region even if they don’t live there (local workers and in-commuters), including their -
     i. Payroll tax
     ii. Personal tax
     iii. Savings
Note: the model will automatically deduct in-commuting income, payroll tax, personal tax, savings, and imported goods and services. All payroll taxes stay in the location of the employment. That is, only commuters' post-payroll-taxes-income is deducted. 

With a Labor Income Change, you can specify whether the income is earned by wage and salary employees or sole proprietors (or some combination of the two) but you cannot specify the specific household income categories receiving the income— after deductions, the remaining income is distributed across all household income groups according to the household column totals in the SAM. At this point the income is applied to the income group specific multipliers. 

Household Income Change- looking at changes in Household Income that are independent of production and payroll. 

Total Income should include all new household income in the Study Area-
New income for all residents in the region, including their -
     i. Personal tax
     ii. Savings
Note: the model will automatically deduct personal tax, savings, and imported goods and services. The model assumes payroll tax and in-commuting income has been excluded from your total income entry. Benefits should be included as household income in your entry. 

The leftover amount after deductions is then applied to the multipliers. In this case, you can specify the particular household income group(s) receiving the income.

Spending Patterns- if you have the data required to build your own spending pattern for what your specific Industry or Institution purchases. Sector Spending Patterns can also be imported and edited. This is highly useful for making an IMPLAN Sector more specific to your business of focus using Analysis-by-Parts.

(Household) Spending Patterns - similar to other spending patterns, this Activity Type can be used to build a "budget" from scratch or edit an existing one. For household impacts, a household spending pattern is the most flexible approach, in that you can adjust any of the coefficients if you have detailed spending data. With an imported household spending pattern events sum to 1.00 - that is, every dollar you plug in the Event Level will be spent to buy goods and services.

In a Household Spending Pattern, Total Spending should the total household expenditures to take place in the region (note that IMPLAN will take care of imports vs. local purchases automatically, though you have the option to override the defaults)-
New income for all residents in the region
Note: the model assumes your input is only disposable income. That is payroll tax, personal tax and savings have been excluded from your total spending entry (along with any income earned by employees that don't live in the Study Area, or "in-commuting" income). 

For Activities involving households (Labor Income Change, Household Income Change and Household Spending Pattern) the definitions for Direct, Indirect, and Induced are not always as clear as they are when discussing Industry changes. We often suggest you forego the Direct, Indirect, and Induced terminology and storyboard your reports when discussing household impacts. Example, "X change in local household income resulted in y change to local value added."

Note for all types: If your input does not match what IMPLAN assumes the input to be based on the type, then you will need to perform those calculations before impact analysis. If you don't have this information, average tax, savings and commuting rates can be found in your model's IxC SAM.