Determining Economic Contributions and Impacts: What is the difference and why do we care?

Economic contribution and impact studies are common tasks for regional economists, but the semantics of the discipline suffer from a lack of standardization with respect to differences between economic contributions, impacts and benefits. These terms refer to 3 distinct metrics which are useful for answering different questions and each has situations when their use is appropriate. This article provides a pedagogical and methodological framework for how and when these terms should be applied in the context of regional economic analysis. Past studies are reviewed and a standardized semantic is presented. It is recommended that economists working in this field use a more explicit and unified terminology and methodology when conducting regional economic analysis.