eiolca.net tutorial

EIO-LCA Tutorial - Step 3: Select a level of economic activity

The third step is to determine the level of economic activity for the desired sector, or how many dollars of output are required to be produced by the sector. This can also be considered the demand for the output produced by the sector.

Any dollar amount is allowed. You can choose to enter a dollar amount that is representative of a single output (e.g., $20,000 for an automobile, $40,000 for a year at a private college), or enter a dollar amount that is representative of an increase in output for the sector. For example, $2 million of economic activity for the Automobile and light truck manufacturing sector would represent producing 100 $20,000 automobiles.

For our example of cars, enter 2 in the box and select the label of "Million dollars" from the pull-down menu.

Economic Activity

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Determining the Dollar Value of Economic Activity

The dollar value entered represents producer price - the cost to make the output; it is not the consumer price - the cost to purchase the output. For an average automobile, the producer price is around $20,000. A consumer would purchase this average vehicle for $25,000 to $30,000.

The economic activity represents producing the "average" output of the sector, not a specific product or service.

Keep in mind...

The economic activity you enter for the sector is relative to the economic activity of the entire economy (trillions of dollars). Entering a small value (e.g., a few dollars) will result in very few non-zero digits in the results. If this happens, pick a larger number, for example, by multiplying your input by a million. You can then scale your results back down by dividing by a million (but at least you will have digits then).