A new economic index was debuted at the Kansas Regional Economic Outlook Conference held at Emporia State University on Thursday.
Marc Fusaro, associate professor and director of the Center for Business and Economic Development at ESU, created the index with the help of his students. It was made public for the first time at the conference on Thursday.
“We used this conference as the opportunity to unveil our new economic index,” Fusaro said. “It is a new way of measuring economic activity in the state of Kansas and surrounding states.”
There are several indices and types of information used to measure economic activity. Fusaro said many people access information about unemployment rates, inflation and personal income. The factors are often moving in different directions and are challenging to comprehend. Fusaro said the ultimate comprehensive measure is gross domestic product, which represents everything produced.
The United States Department of Commerce provides an index on gross domestic product. However, its information lags months behind. The Emporia State Economic Index only has a five-week lag.
“Essentially, what we do is estimate gross domestic product on a monthly basis,” Fusaro said. “Our lag will only be about five weeks.”
The Emporia State Economic Index will be issued on a monthly basis. The index will be released publicly to media and at www.emporia.edu/esei. The website includes charts and data comparing Kansas to neighboring states.
The index released at the conference on Thursday shows that Kansas is average in comparison to neighboring states. Some states like Colorado and Nebraska are higher performing while states like Missouri and Oklahoma lag a bit behind Kansas. Fusaro said this is good news.
“I moved here from Arkansas right about a year ago,” Fusaro said. “The vibe I got about the economy was, we were really down on ourselves because we don’t like our governor, tax revenues aren’t coming in and our economy isn’t doing what it’s supposed to. I thought Kansans were kind of like, ‘woe is me.’ So I was really pleased to see when I ran the numbers and compared Kansas to other states we are right in the middle. There are three above us and three below us. We aren’t at the bottom, but we aren’t going gangbusters either, but we are doing fine.”
Fusaro encourages people to sign up at www.emporia.edu/esei to receive email notifications when the index posts each month.
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