Blog

Written by Derek Cutler and Chris Steele

Imagine that you are a logistics manager for a major manufacturer in December of 2019. The economy has been growing at unprecedented speed, and you are doing everything in your power to ensure that raw materials are getting to where they need to go. You've been speaking with each of your suppliers to better understand what's happening in their production cycles so that you can get your parts to your assembly lines as quickly as possible.

Written by Steven Landau, Ira Hirschman and Derek Cutler

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional “counting” approaches to the economic contribution of ports are no longer sufficient to communicate the story of how a port supports a local, regional, or state economy.

Written by Ira Hirschman and Scott Middleton.

A staggering 1 in 4 families in New York City is food insecure, up from 1 in 8 before the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in massive job loss and economic hardship. This means that over 1.75 million households lack access to enough food for an active, healthy life and face limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate foods, according to Feeding America.

The global spread of COVID-19 and resulting quarantine measures have disrupted manufacturing supply chains and dramatically reduced business and household consumption.

Typically, access conveys movement – driving to a job, walking to a store, taking a bus to school. But in the coronavirus era, being able to participate in the economy without leaving the house has become paramount.

Few places were spared from the spread of COVID-19 this spring.

The Port of Long Beach – along with its neighbor the Port of Los Angeles – is the nation’s largest gateway for international container trade. EDR Group recently completed the Port of Long Beach Economic Impact Study, which quantifies the massive economic impacts of this critical economic engine and its role in the national economy. The study assesses the full range of Port activities, including not only cargo operations, but also cruise passenger services, retail, tourism, and real estate functions. The media has taken note, with stories appearing in publications like the Long Beach Business Journal and Maritime Executive. The study is available on the Port of Long Beach web site.

Infrastructure investment proposals can generate intense public discussion, and when it occurs, there is almost inevitably talk about how the project will (a) hurt the local economy, (b) save the local economy or (c) both. When the latter occurs, it is often because there are two factions – supporters and opponents. Of course, what is often missing is objective information to help guide and control these fears, hopes and allegations. That is where economic models and tools both come in.

We all know some variation of the saying, what you measure is what you get. At EDR Group, we work with States and regions to help choose the right things to measure – whether for performance management over time or to support project evaluation and prioritization – and to understand how those choices affect long-term policy implementation.