Recently, capital investment amounts into Mississippi’s forest products industry have been disproportionate compared with those in neighboring states. Reasons for this have been casually hypothesized, but the topic has not been researched in depth. An economic model has been developed that will aid stakeholders in examining and addressing this issue. The model utilizes county-level data related to southern yellow pine (SYP) lumber manufacturing in tandem with a linear programming solver to produce estimates of annual costs for a SYP sawmill built in any southeastern county. Early results suggest that Mississippi has been an underutilized location for investments in SYP lumber manufacturing based on the costs estimated by the model. The model will be exceptionally useful to those involved in forest industry recruitment efforts because it provides an objective method by which sites in Mississippi can be evaluated for suitability in contrast with sites in neighboring states.

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