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Page 3 <br />Direct Economic Impacts <br />The main focus of the economic analysis is on industry employment. While industry <br />revenue would be apreferred indicator of industry economic health, these data are <br />normally not available at the regional level on a consistent basis over time. In these <br />instances, economists tend to study industry employment patterns. An industry <br />employment function was estimated separately for the bar/tavern and restaurant <br />industries. A multiple regression approach was used to explain the number of employed <br />workers in each industry as a function of personal income, an industryprice factor and <br />pro� variables to capture the impacts of anti-smoking regulations and the transitional <br />recovery from the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. These functions were <br />estimated at the state level, using a log - log format (see Appendix II for the regression <br />results). <br />The employment function for the baz/tavern industry exhibited strong statistical <br />properties. The coefficient of the price deflator is negative, reflecting the normal inverse <br />relationship that exists between price and sales volume and, in a derived manner, with <br />employment. Adjusting the estimated price impact from the regression by industry labor <br />productivity, the price elasticity of demand (customer sensitivityto changes in product <br />price) is -1.9. The magnitude of the number puts the elasticity in the elastic zone, <br />indicating a relatively high price sensitivity of barftavernpatrons to prices. The income <br />elasticity (the responsiveness o f product demand to changes in consumer income) derived <br />Fr�rrt the employment functzon is estimatedto be 1.65, indicatingthat the bar/tavern <br />industryprovides productsthat economists call "normal" goods. These types ofproducts <br />respond positivelyto income gains. Both elasticities are consistent with the existing body <br />of research literature. <br />Employment losses from the anti-smoking regulations are estimated by comparing two <br />versions of industry employment predictions. The first estimate of employment comes <br />from the fitted regression with the ban-coverage proxy variable coded to reflect the <br />current status of these regulations. The altemate estimate uses the same regression <br />parameters, but sets the pro� variable to zero to simulate the removal of all anti-smoking <br />rules. The difference between these two estimates indicates that approximately 2,000 j obs <br />(10.7% of actual employment) were lost in New York State last year. <br />Using data from the New York State Department of Labor, the average wage per <br />employedworker in 2003 was approximately$14,175 per year. Combiningthe job loss <br />with the average annual worker compensation estimate, lost wage and salary payments <br />amounted to $28.5 million in 2003. These 2,000 workers would have added nearly $37 <br />million to constant-dollar Gross State Product (output) in New York State. <br />A similar approach was used to calculate loss j obs in the restaurant industry. The price <br />elasticity of restaurant meals is quite similar to the price sensitivity of bar/tavern patrons <br />(-1.8 versus -19 for bars). However, in contrast, the income elasticity in this segment of <br />the hospitalityindustry is significantly greaterthan for bazs/tavems. Based on the fitted <br />regression, the elasticity is appro�mately2l (versus 1.65 for bazs/tavems). This <br />