An economic impact study estimates the jobs, income and tax revenue that an organization, project, or event supports in a region. At Zenith Economics, most of these studies take 4 to 12 weeks, as counted from the first project meeting to the delivery of the final report.
Some studies take less time. If your organization can give us all of its financial and activity data at the start, and the study does not need a custom data collection survey, we can finish in as little as one to two weeks. Other studies take more time. A statewide study with many sites and several surveys can take as long as a year.
Speed never comes before accuracy. Every study goes through the same quality review before you see a draft, including our fastest studies. If a requested deadline would not leave time for that review, we tell you in our proposal, before any contract is signed.
Before a study starts, you tell us what you need. We then send you a proposal that gives the scope of work, the schedule and a fixed fee within 48 business hours of our first call or email. You can request a proposal here.
Data collection takes the most time
Most of the time in a study goes into data collection and processing. To estimate an impact, we enter your organization's processed spending, payroll and activity data into an economic model of the region. We use tools like IMPLAN, RIMS II, and Regiontrace. When your data is complete and checked, we can build and run a model for one region in as little as a day, or for complex projects up to weeks of our analyst's time.
Typical timelines
| Type of study | Typical time | Main factor in the schedule |
|---|---|---|
| A short fiscal memo or a small survey, using data you already have | 1 to 6 weeks | How fast we receive your data |
| A study of one organization, such as a college, a facility or a festival | 4 to 12 weeks | How fast we receive your data, and how many draft reviews you need |
| An event study with surveys of attendees | The event dates, plus 6 weeks after the event | We must survey attendees after the event |
| A study of many sites or several regions | 2 to 3 months | Surveys of tenants, and a separate model for each region |
| A statewide study, such as all airports in a state | 4 to 12 months | The number of sites and surveys |
| Urgent analysis on compressed timeline | 1 to 2 weeks | Data availability and Zenith staff capacity |
Steps in a standard, simple study
- Proposal and contract. We send a proposal within 48 hours of our first conversation. Contract execution timeline is up to the client.
- Data collection. You send us financial statements, payroll data, payments to vendors, employment information, and/or attendance or enrollment counts. If the study needs interviews or surveys, we do them in this step. This step usually takes the most time.
- Modeling. We enter your data into customized, methodologically rigorous input-output models of the study area. If you need results for more than one area, such as a county and the state, we use a model that links/combines the areas.
- Review. A second analyst on our team reviews and/or recalculates the results separately to ensure all analysis is top quality and defensible. We do this review on every study, including expedited studies. We then send you a draft report. You review the draft and send us your comments.
- Delivery. We send the final report, a short executive summary and a slide presentation. If you ask, we also present the results to your board or council.
Common delays
Data requests cause most delays to an economic and/or fiscal impact study. Finance and human resources staff usually collect the data in addition to their regular work. If our request arrives during budget season or at the end of the fiscal year, a response can take several weeks.
Surveys can also add time. For example, we can only reliably survey event attendees about their local economic spending after the event has ended. When we survey businesses at a site, such as the tenants of a port, we usually send several reminders before enough businesses respond for a valid survey sample size.
Changes to the study area add time too. If you add a county or a district after we build the models, we must build new models. If your board or several departments must approve each draft, each review takes longer.
How to shorten the timeline for an economic impact study
Zenith does all modeling of inputs, outputs, and creation of any final products with accuracy and defensibility as the top priorities. We cannot and do not shorten timelines in any circumstance that would potentially harm the quality of the economic research. However, there are still many ways for clients to shorten project turnaround times:
- You can save the most time before the study starts. Each industry page on our website lists the data we usually ask for. If you collect this data while your organization approves the contract, data collection can take weeks less.
- It also helps to choose one person on your staff who can approve drafts.
- Decide the study area and the audience for the report before the study starts, not during it.
Expedited studies
An expedited study takes one to two weeks. We can do one only if you give us all of the data at the start and the study does not need a survey. An expedited study has fewer rounds of client review. It uses the same models, data checks and second-analyst review as every other study. The time saved comes from collecting less data and waiting less between drafts, and the quality checks stay the same. Without a survey, we estimate visitor spending from records that already exist, such as ticket sales or regional tourism studies.
Examples from recent studies
- Montana Department of Transportation. A study of all 75 public-use airports in Montana. The department hired us in 2025 and published the study in 2026. The study included six surveys. One survey had more than 7,500 responses from airline passengers. 11 months from kickoff to delivery.
- LACERA, the Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association. LACERA selected us in 2025 after a request for proposals. We presented the results to its Board of Retirement in June 2026. 3 months from kickoff to report delivery.
- Zootown Music Festival, Missoula, Montana. Zootown engaged with Zenith one week prior to the festival for the festival kickoff, and Zenith conducted a custom attendee survey and delivered the final economic impact study within 5 weeks of the festival.