Escalation and IMPLAN
Hello,
I have a client that has provided a construction cost that has been escalated to 2020 dollars. I always run the construction cost in today's dollars when using IMPLAN and present the results in today's dollars as well. My question is whether it ever makes sense to run an escalated construction cost. I'm thinking that it may not make sense because if I choose 2016 as the event year it will provide skewed results and if I choose 2020 as the event year (or the year of escalation) I will end up with overinflated results. I would think the analysis needs to be run in today's dollars and that I could either choose 2020 as my event year and have IMPLAN do the escalating, or I could choose 2016 as the event year and inflate the dollars at the end of the analysis.
The second part of my question is whether we'd be losing any benefits by omitting approximately $165 Million in escalation. I think that presumably the number of jobs as a result of this project will be the same today as would happen in 2020, regardless of escalation, though.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Lorianne
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Hello Lorianne, The Event Year should be set to match the year of the value (2016 Event Year for 2016 dollars; 2020 Event Year for 2020 dollars). Results can then be viewed in the dollar year preferred (2016 for 2016 dollars; 2020 for 2020 dollars). Therefore, If your construction cost is in 2020 dollars, then you should set event year to 2020 and use the costs as reported by the client. Results can be viewed in any dollar-year terms by changing the “Dollar Year for View.” Regards, IMPLAN Staff
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