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Background: Medical schools with distributed or regional programs encourage people to live, work, and learn in communities that may be economically challenged. Local spending by the program, staff, teachers, and students has a local economic impact. Although the economic impact of DME has been estimated for nations and sub-national regions, the community-specific impact is often unknown. Communities that contribute to the success of DME have an interest in knowing the local economic impact of this participation. To provide this information, we estimated the economic impact of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) on selected communities in the historically medically underserviced and economically disadvantaged Northern Ontario region. Methods: Economic impact was estimated by a cash-flow local economic model. Detailed data on program and learner spending were obtained for Northern Ontario communities. We included spending on NOSM's distributed education and research programs, medical residents' salary program, the clinical teachers' reimbursement program, and spending by learners. Economic impact was estimated from total spending in the community adjusted by an economic multiplier based on community population size, industry diversity, and propensity to spend locally. Community employment impact was also estimated. Results: In 2019, direct program and learner spending in Northern Ontario totalled $64.6 M (million) Canadian Dollars. Approximately 76% ($49.1 M) was spent in the two largest population centres of 122,000 and 165,000 people, with 1–5% ($0.7 M – $3.1 M) spent in communities of 5000–78,000 people. In 2019, total economic impact in Northern Ontario was estimated to be $107 M, with an impact of $38 M and $36 M in the two largest population centres. The remaining $34 M (32%) of the economic impact occurred in smaller communities or within the region. Expressed alternatively as employment impact, the 404 full time equivalent (FTE) positions supported an additional 298 FTE positions in Northern Ontario. NOSM-trained physicians practising in the region added an economic impact of $88 M. Conclusions: By establishing programs and bringing people to Northern Ontario communities, NOSM added local spending and knowledge-based economic activity to a predominantly resource-based economy. In an economically deprived region, distributed medical education enabled distributed economic impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due primarily to its simplicity and intuitive appeal, the Economic or Export Base Approach is one of the most frequently used tools for urban and regional economic forecasting and impact analysis. The theoretical foundation of base analysis is rooted in traditional income and international balance of payments analysis. In this paper, a number of factors related to multiplier variation among Canadian cities in 1961 is examined, utilizing regression analysis. A connection between city function, the sociological and demographic makeup, and the propensity to consume local goods appears to be a reasonable a priori assumption. If the propensity to consume local goods is affected either directly or indirectly through differences in the propensities to import or to lend abroad then the multiplier will likely be affected. The positive and highly significant coefficient on per capita income suggests that high per capita income affects the multiplier more significantly by expanding the market for local goods titan by increasing the propensities to save or import.

This article reports the results of research into the interdependence of the services-producing and goods-producing sectors in Canada. Using an input-output model, an approach developed by Miyazawa [1976] is used to decompose a total potential stimulus into three components for each sector: an internal multiplier, an external multiplier, and an intersectoral multiplier. Due to the dominance of the internal multiplier, the total potential of the goods sector for propagating an economic stimulus is found to be larger than that of the services sector. The external multiplier of the service sector, a more dynamic sector which has gained momentum, is found to be larger than that for the goods sector. The results confirm the growing role and significance of the service sector in the Canadian economy. The highly complementary nature of the interaction of the two sectors is a conclusion reached through an appraisal of intersectoral multipliers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]