MANHATTAN, Kan. - Economics has been described as stating the obvious in terms of the incomprehensible. At times, it does seem unnecessarily complicated. When I want to know something about economics, I “high-tail it” to an economist. In this case, Tom Trieman, a natural resource economist and forester with the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Tom recently conducted an economic impact analysis of the Kansas forest and wood industry using an IMPLAN model. In the mid-70s, the USDA Forest Service developed IMPLAN (IMpact analysis for PLANning) for community impact analysis. Economic impact analyses examine the effect of economic activity in a given area – in this case, Kansas. Economic impact is usually measured in terms of changes in economic growth, and associated changes in jobs and income. The analysis estimated the level of economic activity using the most recent available data from 2014, and calculated the difference from what would otherwise be expected if the activity did not occur.

Read the full article here.