For over 25 years, EIG has helped governments, investors, and communities measure the net benefit of development — the new revenues, the true costs, and the real return on every economic development project and incentive.
We're an economic consulting firm built on one idea: that good decisions start with honest numbers. From fiscal and economic impact to tax credits and forecasting, we turn complex economics into answers leaders can actually use.
Five ways we help the public and private sectors understand how development shapes the local economy.
Nationally recognized experts in local fiscal impact analysis, and the creators of LOCI® — the gold standard in the field. What new tax revenues, school enrollment, and public-safety costs follow a new employer? We help governments and site-selection consultants understand the true cost and net benefit of development and the incentives used to attract it.
Within Georgia, we use our own, proprietary, Georgia specific I-O model. Outside Georgia, we use IMPLAN. With decades of experience — including multi-regional input-output (MRIO) analysis — we isolate the indirect and induced impacts on a community, even when the direct impact occurs elsewhere.
A leading firm in the analysis of state tax credits — including New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) and historic rehabilitation programs. We've provided economic and fiscal impact studies for the legislatures of Texas, Nevada, Utah, Louisiana, Kentucky, Florida, and Tennessee, plus investment-specific analysis under the Arkansas, Utah, and Connecticut programs.
Economic cycles make revenue hard to predict — yet accurate forecasts are essential for planning and budgeting. We have years of experience building local-government forecast models for sales tax, property tax, and other revenue streams, so leaders can plan with confidence.
An economic index measures the waves of expansion and contraction in your economy. We're recognized experts in building local indexes — and we teach economic development professionals nationwide how to build and maintain their own. We can build one for you and show you how to keep it current.
There is no other software that does what LOCI does. Model the fiscal impact of development projects against any U.S. community — with community-specific data including demographics, tax structures, and local government budgets.
Alfie Meek is the President of the Economic Impact Group, LLC, and serves as Director of the Center for Economic Development Research at the Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²). He has nearly 30 years of experience in economic and fiscal analysis and community-based research. Before joining EI², he served for nine years as Chief Economist and Director of Economic Development for the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners, and earlier as Research Economist for SunTrust Banks, Inc. He recently served on Governor Kemp's Coronavirus Task Force Economic Impact Committee.
His focus areas include economic and fiscal impact analysis, tax credit analysis, forecasting, econometric modeling, and the financial impacts of land use. He speaks widely on economic and fiscal impact, economic development, and the macro economy. His research on the size and economic impact of the U.S. sports industry was published in Sports Marketing Quarterly, has hundreds of academic citations, and has been referenced in USA Today, Georgia Trend, Financial Times London, Fortune, and Investor's Business Daily.
Dr. Meek speaks regularly on the national macro economy — at local chambers, private business retreats, and national conferences — translating where the economy has been and where it's headed into terms decision-makers can act on.
Between talks, he publishes a weekly blog on the economy that feeds and supports his speaking.
A weekly read on the U.S. economy — clear, current, and grounded in the data. Published on Substack.
Read the blog →LOCI® remains our flagship, but it’s no longer the only model we build. We’re developing a growing suite of specialized, web-based tools that put the same rigor in the hands of analysts and community developers.
Put a number on the full economic ripple of any project, industry, or household across Georgia — the direct, indirect, and induced effects on jobs, income, value added, and output. Built on the BEA benchmark accounts, regionalized to Georgia down to the county level.
County- and city-level housing data for economic-development analysts — turning the American Community Survey, BLS, and HUD data into profiles, comparisons, rankings, and maps, each with a parametric affordability calculator and client-ready Excel, Word, and PDF exports.
An expansion of LOCI® for mixed-use development. Before a single approval, it projects the net fiscal impact of a proposed project on a Georgia community — weighing the new property, sales, and other revenues against the true, community-specific cost of serving it, year by year.
Does new development pay for its own services? The COCS Model turns a community’s whole budget — revenues and expenses — into one defensible cost-per-dollar ratio for each land use, built from the jurisdiction’s own tax digest and adopted budget.
Project the economic, fiscal, school, retail, and housing impacts of new jobs and investment on a community — even when the project lands one county over. Uses real commuting patterns to trace how jobs and households ripple into your county’s finances, schools, and housing.
A single subscription for Georgia LOCI® clients that brings LOCI®, LOCI® — Mixed Use, and the Georgia Input-Output Model together in one place.
From state legislatures and development authorities to leading firms in structured tax-credit finance.
Reach out and your message goes straight to someone who can give you the answers you need. We typically respond within 24 hours.
Email us →Email us anytime at
impact@economicimpact.com
Economic Impact Group, LLC
P.O. Box 112, Flowery Branch, GA 30542