Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation in Oklahoma

Center for Urban Policy Research, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; Listokin, David; Lahr, Michael; Grady, Bryan

From executive summary: "This study examines the many significant economic effects of historic preservation in Oklahoma. The study examines the total economic effects of historic preservation, encompassing both the direct and multiplier effects. The direct impact component consists of labor and material purchases made specifically for the preservation activity. The multiplier effects incorporate what are referred to as indirect and induced economic consequences. The indirect impact component consists of spending on goods and services by industries that produce the items purchased for the historic preservation activity. The induced impact component focuses on the expenditures made by the households of workers involved either directly or indirectly with the activity. To illustrate, lumber purchased at a hardware store for historic rehabilitation is a direct impact. The purchases of the mill that produced the lumber are an indirect impact. The household expenditures of the workers at both the mill and the hardware store are induced impacts. Economists estimate direct, indirect, and induced effects using an input-output model (I-O). This study specifies the total economic effects of major elements of historic preservation in Oklahoma through a state-of-the-art I-O model developed by the Center for Urban Policy Research (CUPR) for the National Park Service, Division of Cultural Resources, National Center for Preservation Technology and Training. The model is termed the Preservation Economic Impact Model (PEIM). In the current analysis in Oklahoma, the PEIM is applied to both annual (2007) historic preservation investment in this state and to the cumulative investment of two major historic preservation subsidies/programs applied in Oklahoma. The PEIM is first applied to an annual (2007) outlay of major components of historic preservation investment. The annual Oklahoma historic preservation components considered by the PEIM include historic rehabilitation ($125 million in 2007), heritage tourism ($175 million in 2007), and the state's Main Street program ($57 million1 in 2007)—for a total of $357 million in 2007. The PEIM is then also applied to cumulative $1,392 million expenditures attributable to two major programs for historic preservation (i.e. over the life of the program being modeled expressed in current value—2007— terms) in Oklahoma: the federal historic rehabilitation investment tax credit (ITC) since its inception in 1978 through 2007 ($507 million) and the Main Street program since its inception in Oklahoma in 1986 through 2007 ($885 million). (The $507 million and $885 million are both expressed in inflation-adjusted dollars, taking into account inflation over time.)The results of the PEIM model include many fields of data." Funding was provided in part by a 2007 Historic Preservation Fund grant to Preservation Oklahoma, Inc. (project number OK-07-803) administered by the Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office (grant number 40-07-21641) and the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation in Oklahoma

Collections