Informing Infrastructure Investment 

With the world’s population expected to reach 8.5 billion by 2030, infrastructure investments are needed to sustain our communities.

WSP guides public and private infrastructure owners, planners, regulators and policy makers through the investment decision-making process from both financial and economic perspectives. In short, we provide our clients with insight into how infrastructure investments shape economic outcomes, including goods movement, labour markets, productivity and broader regional competitiveness. 

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 characterised 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.

We are responsive to our clients’ needs and understand the constraints they face and the implications of investments for policy decisions. As a result, we evaluate the benefits, costs and tradeoffs of investment, quantify their impacts economically, environmentally and socially, and identify the economic effects of different pricing and funding strategies.

We specialize in providing economic services to both public and private sectors, including government, real estate developers and industry, with projects spanning the transportation, property, energy, urban infrastructure, water and wastewater and mining sectors. Whatever the scale of the challenge – whether it’s urban regeneration, delivering an affordable housing development or training a nation’s workforce for future industries ¬– we analyse the problems, devise practical strategies and deliver fundable solutions.

We’re able to do this for clients across numerous sectors thanks to our broad range of in-house expertise. This includes not only economics and finance but also specialities such as infrastructure design, organisational behaviour and the full range of built-environment services.

Our broad range of skills is matched by our broad reach. Across the globe, our local teams have in-depth knowledge of their communities and long-standing relationships with local government; and we share cross-sector learning and best practice from around the world to benefit our clients’ projects.

Whatever and wherever the project, we focus on making sure places achieve their full economic potential, while generating shared positive outcomes for societal and environmental benefit.

Economics services

• Economic analysis and impact assessment
• Economic forecasting and econometric modeling
• Economic benefit-cost analysis (BCA)
• Enviro-economics
• Energy economics
• Policy design and evaluation – programme design
• Economic development studies and strategy – scheme, district, city, region
• Economic and social impact assessment – policies and interventions, social value
• Socio-economic/land use forecasting
• Industry strategy and innovation clusters – industrial transformation
• Accessing finance and funding – funding bids and arrangements
• Business case and economic appraisal  
• Implementation, governance and delivery vehicles 
• Real estate impact analysis and market studies
• Risk management and asset management 
• Economic geography
• Behavioral economics and its impact on infrastructure usage
• Economic, social, and spatial equity analyses
• Infrastructure and policy prioritization and selection

Net zero economics and a fair transition

WSP is already at the forefront of developing net zero solutions for our clients and communities. 

Our economics team contributes to the net zero transmission in three important ways:

Projects – we shape and position decarbonisation projects so they’re best placed to attract private sector investment or public funding. 

Economic driver – with technological innovation creating new industries and new skill needs, we help clients understand and harness net zero as an economic driver.

Fair transition – we see the net zero transition as an opportunity for a fast and inclusive economic recovery from COVID-19, one that leaves nobody behind.