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• Advanced Metrics for Freight Rail and Waterway Economic Development Planning

  Mon, 20 Nov 2023 18:42:01 GMT

  Using advanced metrics in the situation analysis portion of the planning process helps to identify underlying performance issues that become the focus of the research and strategy portions of the process. In this article I present a few advanced metrics to support an economic development planning process that incorporates rail and water freight transportation-related investments. These metrics are calculated from publicly available data and are presented within the context of... Full Text

• Configuring Customer Relationship Management Systems for Economic Accounting and Performance Management

  Fri, 30 Dec 2022 18:42:01 GMT

  Unlike businesses that measure performance against internal goals related to sales revenue and profits, economic development and government agencies measure performance against goals external to their organization, such as employment and income. By integrating economic accounting metrics into their program management system, development agencies can track performance related to external goals as part of their workflow. In this note, I discuss and provide guidance on configuri... Full Text

• Managing Economic Development with Portfolio Accounting

  Mon, 13 Sep 2022 17:41:01 GMT

  In this accounting note, we discuss the merits of implementing portfolio accounting to improve economic development performance. Tracking the situation and outlook of the top industry portfolios and the associated local supply chain strength is an important accounting function for long-term performance of the local economy. Without portfolio accounting, organizations can fail to recognize situations in which their economy becomes over-weighted with industries in decline and ... Full Text

• Introduction to Economic Accounting Practices

  Wed, 7 Sep 2022 17:41:01 GMT

  In this accounting note we discuss a framework for understanding the different economic accounting practices that are used in the economics profession, such as Economic Impact, Benefit-Cost, Industry Contribution, and Cost-Effectiveness. We distinguish between Indicator/Investment accounting and Managerial/Stakeholder accounting to help clarify the purpose and approach for each commonly used accounting practice.... Full Text

• Accounting for Regional Economic Development Impacts in Benefit-Cost Analysis

  Wed, 23 Dec 2020 17:41:01 GMT

  In this note, I address the general issue of why regional impacts, such as jobs, are not directly accounted for when preparing Benefit-Cost Analyses for Regional Economic Development (RED) projects. Regional Economic Development is well-served when investments increase economic productivity and competitive advantage, resulting in income and jobs being maintained or increased in the region. Accounting for this underlying economic productivity effect is the role of Benefit-Cost... Full Text

• Using Benefit-Cost Analysis to Evaluate Tax Abatement Decisions

  Tue, 11 Aug 2020 17:41:01 GMT

  A standard practice in Regional Economic Development is to offer tax abatements to businesses that agree to locate or expand operations within a region. Unlike infrastructure investments, the current generally accepted practice among economic development professionals is to use Economic Impact Analysis rather than Benefit-Cost Analysis to evaluate these tax abatement decisions. In this accounting note, we discuss the merits of performing Benefit-Cost Analysis and offer guidan... Full Text

• Adding Economic Life Cycle Accounting to Open Checkbooks

  Tue, 24 Jul 2018 17:41:01 GMT

  Economic life cycle accounting plays a vital role in good government, starting with multi-criteria planning to support sustainable development to transparency and assurance in the reporting of economic impacts related to government investments and expenditures. In this accounting note, we discuss how government finance and technology professionals can take advantage of open data initiatives and economic life cycle accounting tools to measure and report on their contribution t... Full Text

• Understanding Occupation Accounting's Role in Economic Development

  Tue, 24 Jul 2018 17:41:01 GMT

  In this note, we discuss occupational accounting and its role in supporting regional economic development. The work of economic development is to provide the capacity and opportunity for everyone to fully contribute to the economy. We see a negative trend happening now in our occupational chart of accounts of career occupations offering less than a living wage due to a very narrow division of labor in which many people are underemployed. We recommend that economic development... Full Text

• Improving Economic Development Performance Through Economic Life Cycle Accounting

  Mon, 23 Jul 2018 17:41:01 GMT

  Economic life cycle accounting supports local economic performance management processes for economic development, planning, and finance professionals. A new breed of economic accounting systems creates not only the pro forma budgets that represent the starting point for performance management - similar to the impact statements produced by regional impact models - but also detailed statements that inform an action plan and the measurement and reporting process. Implementing th... Full Text