The Wyandot County Office of Economic Development completed the first formal Economic Impact Analysis (EIA) for Wyandot County (available here). A similar analysis was completed in mid-2013, and results were distributed at a WCOED bi-monthly board meeting.
To perform the EIA, the WCOED utilized IMPLAN modeling software. IMPLAN is a powerful tool that can analyze geographic areas from multiple states down to individual counties. The WCOED’s use of the software is made possible through the OSU Extension Community Development’s purchase of the license and annual data sets.
While an EIA can be performed for a number of different scenarios, Wyandot County’s compares the same growth event across our five largest industry sectors in terms of overall output. The analyses identify those industries where the growth event provides the largest benefit (“ripple effects”) to the rest of the local economy in terms of employment growth, increased output, labor income, and taxes. Most importantly these results can be referred to when amending the local strategic plan and considering new business attraction efforts. The IMPLAN software can also be used to show the overall impact local of expansion and attraction projects.