This paper reports on an interactive computer model developed to calculate the economic impacts of capital investment in transportation facilities. The transport impact model (TRIM) works within the framework of input-output analysis and is based on the 43-commodity input-output table for the province of Ontario in Canada. For a given capital project, described in terms of several categories of input costs, TRIM computes values for labour income, gross domestic product, employment, gross sales, tax revenue, imports from other provinces and abroad, and primary energy consumed. Some of the preceding categories are further disaggregated. For each impact indicator, trim shows the initial effect and the indirect and induced effects of a capital expenditure. While the version of TRIM described herein applies to the Ontario economy, it can be adapted for use in any economic unit for which input-output data exist.
Samenvatting