The Center for Economic Development and Business Research, part of Wichita State University’s W. Frank Barton School of Business, has completed a study of the regional export potential Wichita has to the surrounding areas.
The full report can be found at www.ExportMarkets.cedbr.org.
John Bardo
“For long-term economic viability, there is an increasing need for Wichita’s economy to be linked to surrounding metropolitan areas,” said WSU President John Bardo. “This study is an important resource to encourage these relationships and provide greater growth opportunities for the South Central Kansas economy.”
The project investigated the potential export markets for intermediate goods in eight major Metropolitan Statistical Areas: Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Wichita has a diverse set of goods-producing sectors that are in demand as inputs to these nearby metropolitan areas, and, as the report reveals, two sectors in Wichita that are demanded consistently across surrounding regions are the coating and engraving sector and the machine shop sector.
Wichita could potentially supply a variety of additional goods to each of the areas discussed in this report. The markets with the most diverse demands from Wichita are Houston and Tulsa, each with eight different sectors potentially demanding Wichita inputs from its Top 10 most concentrated industries.