Inforum was founded more than 50 years ago by Dr. Clopper Almon, now Professor Emeritus of the University of Maryland. It is dedicated to improving business planning, government policy analysis, and the general understanding of the economic environment. Inforum accomplishes this mission through:

• Building and using structural economic models of U.S. and other economies. Inforum pioneered the construction of dynamic interindustry-macroeconomic models that portray the economy in a unique "bottom-up" fashion.

• Working with government and private sector research sponsors to investigate a variety of issues. Economic projections and analysis using Inforum econometric models are distinguished by detail at the industrial and product level.

• Serving as a training crucible for University of Maryland graduate and undergraduate students who receive valuable training in empirical economics. Indeed, Inforum graduate research assistants have completed over 40 Ph.D. dissertations, most of which have contributed directly to the infrastructure of Inforum.

• Maintaining active and productive ties with a world-wide network of research associates, each of which uses Inforum modeling methods and software. The Inforum partners have held annual conferences since 1993 to foster cooperation and development of economic knowledge and techniques.

Since its founding in 1967 by Dr. Clopper Almon, Inforum has served government agencies and private sector entities interested in economic analysis facilitated by Inforum's approach. In particular, Interindustry-Macroeconomic (IM) models combine input-output structure with econometric equations in a dynamic and detailed framework. Because of their ability to portray the detailed structure of economies over actual time periods, these models fill an important gap in the inventory of existing models of the U.S. and foreign economies. In addition to forecasting, the models often are used to answer "what if" questions about the impact across industries of fluctuation in the macroeconomic environment, such as changes in exchange rate or tax policy.

Failure to Act September 2020 - Inforum and EBP investigated the economic impacts of the deterioration of electric utilities, water supply and wastewater utilities, and surface transportation infrastructure over the next 20 years. The study was sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
An Economic Analysis of Spending on Marine Transportation System (MTS) Infrastructure April 9, 2020 - Inforum worked with the U.S. Committee on the Marine Transportation System to examine the effects of water transportation infrastructure spending on the economy. The study was conducted using the Inforum Lift model. The policy scenarios include investing up to $87 billion by 2030, with higher amounts of spending on operations and maintenance. The study shows that increased infrastructure spending provided widespread economic benefits, including enhanced labor productivity, job growth, and income.
2019 Inforum Outlook Conference December 12, 2019 - Inforum held its 52nd annual outlook conference at the University of Maryland. In addition to the U.S. economic outlook, topics included Brexit, economic effects of climate policy, measurement of income inequality, and macroeconomic analysis of the CBO.
The Supply Side of Health Care November 21, 2019 - Inforum and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services updated their 2014 study of U.S. health care. Our work reconciles information about the supply and demand sides by linking the National Health Expenditure Accounts to domestic production and imports, value added, and employment.
A complete listing of recent news is available.

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