This paper revisits the application of impact study methods to the consumption

expenditures of students. Whilst the academic literature on the subject is mature, it has
traditionally applied simplifying assumptions about the exogeneity of student
expenditures. These assumptions tend either to over- or underestimate the
consumption impacts of local students, depending on the specific approach adopted. To
resolve this issue, we pare back the short-hand conventions that practitioners have
established over the years to measure the economic impact of student expenditures
and instead adopt an approach that is strictly consistent with standard input–output (IO)
analysis. We note that in the standard incorporation of household consumption in such
analysis, part of household expenditure is endogenous and part exogenous, with the
origin of the income used to fund consumption expenditures establishing their
exogeneity. In the present study, exogeneity is determined using the findings of a
student income-expenditure survey. These issues are relevant to any application of
impact analysis where the initial injection is a consumption expenditure shock and are
crucial for the accurate implementation of IO analysis in such cases.