Reporting economic impacts of a proposed undertaking or policy, is a common use of economic statistics and tools. The report is often a simple narration of affected economic statistics such as the annual number of jobs created, the value of wages and salaries paid and the overall value to the economy. The estimates are commonly multiplied by the expected duration of the proposals – often ten years. At its simplest the statistics are strictly for the undertaking itself. A more ambitious accounting attempts to locate the proposal within the local economy extending the description to include the indirect effects of increased activity by suppliers and their suppliers. Still more ambitious it may include the induced effects of increased consumer expenditures by the employees directly employed by the proposed undertaking and their suppliers.

Statistics Canada uses the “supply and use tables [that] trace the production of commodities by domestic industries, combined with imports, through their uses by industries or as final consumption, investment or exports.” The findings for one such study published by Statistics Statistics Canada is discussed in this post. It was prepared for the wireless communication carriers industry of Canada. The findings are a basic economic impact description what is referred to in this post as a “skinny” analysis. It restricts the industry descriptive statistics to gross value of sales, value added (gross domestic product) and the number of jobs. The findings include direct, indirect and induced economic impacts. Results are below.

Statistics Canada has additional data to extend the economic impact report to include wages and salaries and various taxes. Employment within a industry can also be linked to the National Occupational Classification System to identify strengths within the existing labour force. The impact analyses can also extend to Statistics Canada’s physical flow accounts (PFA) that record the annual flows of natural resources, products and residuals between the Canadian economy and the environment. Importantly these account enable the report to include greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. Data are presented to reflect the activities of industries, households, institutions and governments, and follow the classification system used in Statistics Canada’s Supply, Use and Input-Output Tables.

To this point the economic impact report is static, basically a description of the status quo given current prices. But the economic impact analysis can be used as a planning tool for contrasting alterative visions of the future. The classic alternative scenarios are to diversify the economy or to deepen any apparent comparative advantages for specialization. Data and information strengthens the this next level of the policy discussion, and the economic impact analysis will benefit from the broad involvement of the socioeconomic community. But economic impact analysis will add structure, discipline and credibility to the discussion.