We specialize in providing economic services to transportation, property, mining, energy, water and wastewater and solid waste sectors. By looking at both governing policies and economics, our economists are able to provide our clients with insight into how infrastructure investments shape economic outcomes, including goods movement, labor markets, economic productivity and broader regional competitiveness. Economic consulting services include:
- Benefit-cost analysis
- Cost escalation forecasting
- Cost risk analysis / Monte Carlo simulations
- Econometric modeling / demand forecasting
- Economic development studies
- Economic impact analysis
- Lifecycle cost analysis
- Market demand analysis
- Real estate and fiscal impact analysis
- Regional and economic model development
- Socio-economic / land use forecasting
- Supply chain analysis
- International and domestic freight flow analyses
- Toll, fare, tariff and price elasticity studies
Economic and related analyses enable owners, planners and policy makers to make more informed decisions regarding the impacts of infrastructure investments and resource management on economic development and resiliency at the local, metropolitan, regional, national and international levels.
For sectors characterized by a mix of funding such as user fees, debt and grants, we have developed numerous models projecting the financial and economic rates of return on a wide range of projects. These issues are particularly important in determining how a project can be funded, and our experts have applied these principles in a variety of settings.
Our strategy is to be responsive to our clients’ needs, including the constraints they face and the implications of investments for policy decisions. We evaluate the benefits, costs and tradeoffs of investment, quantify their impacts economically, environmentally and socially, and identify the economic impacts of different pricing and funding strategies.
Among the range of tools that WSP has developed and used to support economic impact analysis is the firm’s PRIoritization Scenario Model (PRISMTM ), which is used for comprehensive benefit cost and return on investment analyses.
PRISMTM also draws on advanced regional economic modeling techniques to evaluate the wider economic impacts of projects. PRISMTM is a proven and reliable tool to help craft long-term strategic plans, prioritize projects, determine the feasibility and impacts of potential public investments and assess large projects for governments and the public.
Clients who have retained our economic consulting services include owners and operators of infrastructure, governments, private investors, financial institutions and major multilateral funding organizations.
