We can apply structural path analysis at the one-digit NAICS sector detail from social accounts of the US and regional economies to outline the supply chain from a given sector as a flow of products and by-products between sectors to consumers.

A region’s competitive advantages are in large part based on the strengths of its workforce.  To evaluate the core competencies, Alward Institute deconstructs the employment in the industries in your region into the underlying knowledge, skills, abilities, and education (KSAE) associated with those jobs.  In this way, the analyst is able to get a different and more complete view of the workforce in their region. 

The Wisconsin local foods study prepared by the Alward Institute estimates the economic contribution of the state's local food markets by simulating how the state's economy could change if there were no local food markets.

 

Using an empirically-based economic model, the study first establishes a baseline measurement of the size of the state's existing economy.  Local food sales are then removed from the model in order to measure the economic change that could occur if local food markets no longer existed.  The size of Wisconsin's economy is then re-measured and the difference attributed to the existence of the state's local food markets.