scenario construction and margined purchases quest

Hello Brian. We have included our reply to your questions below each questions from your Forum Post. I have two questions regarding scenario construction and margined purchases. Thanks so much for your help thus far. 1)I am conducting an impact analysis for a small 'two industry' study group. I have obtained sufficient info for a BOG analysis on the majority of the study group and I plan to import custom industry spending patterns (and labor income activities) for those firms. However, for one of the larger firms I can only obtain data of a high enough resolution for an industry change activity (i.e. output and labor info). Given the above, can i create a single scenario that features the custom industry spending patterns activities AND a traditional industry change activity? Yes you can. However, you may want to create separate scenarios for the Industry Spending Pattern and the Traditional Industry Change Activity. This will allow you to see the impacts of each activity, discuss, and report the results of each activity when needed. If you want to create one scenario for both of these events, you can still do so. All you would need to do is create a “New Scenario” and name it, for example, “Combo Industry Spending and Industry Change” or whatever name you decide to use. Simply select “Combo” scenario and then select your industry spending pattern activity and industry change activity to include in the analysis and run. Now you have each activity results plus the combined impact results of the spending pattern and traditional industry change. Splitting the impact into smaller parts as described above gives you more breadth, depth, and flexibility to use the results in the future. 2) For the BOG analysis portion of the study is there a place on the site with more info on identifying where to apply values of Margined purchases? Is it just for purchases that correspond to retail or wholesale sectors? We are not aware of other sources to point you to that deal with Bill of Goods (BOG) type of analysis. And you are correct about when margins should be applied. IMPLAN will notify you with a popup message when a sector has margins. We have attached a document that talks about margins with illustrations to help explain them. It really gives a good overview of this topic. We hope this helps to answer some of your questions concerning margins. Thanks in advance for your help, I hope everyone had a pleasant weekend. Sincerely, Brian K.

Thanks so much for the help. I greatly appreciate the informative and prompt response. I will check back in if I have anymore questions. Sincerely, Brian Kennedy

Hello, Checking back in with a margined purchases question. The attached powerpoint may be right in saying "margins are the hardest part of IMPLAN" While the powerpoint was very helpful and I now have a solid grasp of the reasoning behind Margins, I remain a bit confused with respect to Margins execution in IMPLAN for non-retail sectors. "Margins are used only for consumer purchases" What about wholesale margins? When/how do I employ those? In my custom industry spending pattern, many of my firms' expenditures fall into sector 320 or 319 by virtue of classifying first by NAICS codes and then using the sector search tool. Additionally, I have not received any Margin pop-up during the model building process or scenario execution. Is there a function I need to turn on in order to be alerted? Additionally the margins option is un-selectable before/after importing my industry spending pattern and in trial runs of imported IMPLAN industry spending patterns. Lastly, I still remained confused in relation to margins in non-wholesale/retail situations. If i have specified sector 115 for diesel fuel expenditures in my industry spending pattern, are wholesale margins necessary? The attached powerpoint seems to suggest so. If so, how do I apply them? So sorry for the confusion and thanks in advance for the excellent support. Sincerely, Brian K.

Hello Brian, We apologize for the delay in getting back to you on this and on the confusion in regards to Margins. They certainly are challenging and especially so in relation to building and using the spending patterns. [url=http://implan.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=view&catid=84&id=17857&Itemid=35#17875]The link to this forum post provides a breakdown of applying Margins in the context of a spending pattern [/url]and a spreadsheet that will hopefully be helpful in assisting you with calculating and applying Margins in your spending pattern. In regards to your other question, whether or not you want to apply Margins basically comes down to the question "From whom was it purchased?". If the answer is a wholesaler, then Margins should be applied and the Retailer should be removed. This is unfortunately as described in the link above a manual process for spending pattern analysis. If the answer is that they are purchased directly from the producer then you would not apply Margins, but impact directly to the producing Sector. The primary purpose of applying Margins is to ensure that we are not providing the producing Industry too much impact while not providing the appropriate impacts to transport and wholesale when these components of the Value Chain have added cost to the final demand. Hopefully this helps. Please let us know if you have any additional questions. IMPLAN Support Team