Simulating Impacts on Regional Economies: A Modeling Alternative

Practitioners and academics apply a range of regional economic models for impacts assessment. These models extend from a simple economic base through to input-output and econometric models and computable general equilibrium models. All such models have strengths and weaknesses. Dimensions of which impact assessment models are often compared include level of industry detail, data availability, and complexity of behaviour modelled. This chapter presents a model for Simulating Impacts on Regional Economies (SIRE) that occupies an intermediate position between Input-Output (IO), arguably the most widely used model for regional impacts assessments, and Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models. With greater behavioural detail than the typical regional IO model, the SIRE model incorporates many of the features of CGE models without enforcing the strictly linear behavioural relationships of IO. Like most CGE models, the simulation framework presented here borrows a subset of parameters from an existing econometric model for the same region. The SIRE model falls short, however, of the complexity of capturing the full range of behaviours of CGE models.