An evaluation of the business attraction module in Montana's highway economic analysis tool

Abstract

Montana's Highway Economic Analysis Tool (HEAT) was created to forecast the economic benefits of highways projects, including possible growth in employment. Of particular interest is the business attraction module in HEAT, which estimates the direct employment gains within counties by many industrial sectors owing to improvements in accessibility. This study investigates the transferability of HEAT to other locales by implementing essential aspects of HEAT's business attraction module for five candidate highway projects in Wisconsin. HEAT's business attraction module gives plausible results, but the impacts of these five candidate highway projects were each estimated to be very small. HEAT's business attraction module, for the most part, uses readily-available national data, so any agency with access to a statewide travel forecasting model could implement a similar economic forecast.