DEVELOPMENT OF SCALABLE STAKEHOLDER-NEEDS METRICS APPLIED IN ECONOMIC INPUT-OUTPUT SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT MODELS

Abstract

In the last half century, much research effort has gone into identifying the causes and effects of societal burdens. Industrial activity may arguably be the most widely responsible cause, but the effects, or social impacts (SIs), resulting from industrial activity are typically considered externalities and not evaluated alongside economic performance of industries. It is clear however that people are fundamental to the progress and development of economies. Understanding how people are affected by economies, and in particular industrial economic activity, starts with recognizing that impacts on people can no longer be considered externalities. The coordinating lack of understanding of social performance, i.e., how stakeholder needs are impacted by industrial production, limits the capacity of decision makers to make fully informed choices. A multidisciplinary perspective is needed to address this gap in understanding. The new approach, economic input-output social impact assessment, integrates economic production with social impacts and is further demonstrated to provide a measurable path forward to evaluate the social performance of industries. It is shown that changes in industrial activity, e.g., growth, in the U.S. will have a directly related and predictable change in social impact.