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contact info

Director: Geoffrey J. D. Hewings; hewings@illinois.edu
Location: 607 S. Matthews; Urbana, IL 61801-3671
Phone/Fax: 217-333-4740 (phone); 217-244-9339 (fax)

Welcome to R | E | A | L

The Regional Economics Applications Laboratory focuses on the development and use of analytical models for urban and regional forecasting and economic development.

REAL's mission is to provide timely, high quality analytical economic information for a variety of uses such as public policy decision making by public sector agencies and for strategic marketing in the private sector. REAL's capabilities revolve around comprehensive state and metropolitan models that integrate econometric and input-output analysis to provide for both impact and forecasting analyses.

While REAL's primary focus has been on the economies of the Midwest, REAL has collaborated in the development of models for several regions on the east coast. In addition, two models have been constructed for states in Brazil and a third is under construction. A model for the Jakarta Metropolitan region is also under construction.

REAL draws its staff from cooperating institutions and advanced graduate students in the fields of economics, geography, urban and regional planning, computer science and mathematics. Many of the projects the students work on then become the basis for thesis and dissertations.

Monitoring the Economy

- Illinois Economic Review Report - April: Illinois shed 17,800 jobs in Mar 2013, compared with a revised 15,300 job gains in Feb 2013. The shadow unemployment rates for Illinois, RMW and the Nation were 12.2%, 13.9% and 12.2%, compared to official unemployment rates of 9.5%, 7.4% and 7.6% more (Released: 04-30-2013)

- IL Job Report - April: Since the beginning of the recession in Dec 2007, Illinois has posted negative job changes 32 times and positive job gains 31 times so far. The state of Illinois now has a net loss of 211,700 jobs since the beginning of the recession in December 2007. more (Released: 04-30-2013)

- MSA Job Report -April: Since the economic crisis in December 2007, the average growth for Metro is -0.06% while for Rural it is -0.04%. The same rate for Upstate it is -0.06% while for Downstate is -0.06%. more (Released: 05-06-2013)

-The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) - April: The Chicago Business Activity Index (CBAI) increased to 97.3 in April from 92.3 in March. The rise is attributed to the increase in non-manufacturing employment and improved activities in retail sector in the Chicago region.. more (Released: 06-18-2013)

- MSA Business Index and Forecast - February: According to the one-year-ahead forecast for Feb 2014, MSA Bloomington, Champaign, Davenport-Rock Island-Moline, Peoria, Rockford and Springfield are likely to perform better than Chicago while MSA Decatur and Kankakee are likely to perform worse than Chicago. more (Released: 04-15-2013)

- Housing Tax incentive: While 84,559 homebuyers in Illinois put in a claim for the Federal Home Buyer Tax Credit, only 25,504 sales were actually boosted by the incentive more (Released: 09-21-2010)

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