Although it is difficult to do so, estimating the macroeconomic impacts of DG has clear benefits. DG is becoming increasingly widespread and its uptake is fundamentally changing the structure and operation of electricity networks, and increased expenditures on renewable energy installations, for example, is likely to have wider economic interactions and feedback effects. A number of multi-sectoral modelling approaches allow an analysis of the likely aggregate and sectoral economic impacts (which in turn can be linked to environmental and social impacts – see below). First, input–output (IO) analysis can be usefully employed to assess regional (and if data permit) local economic and employment effects of, for example, the introduction of significant DG penetration.26 Such analyses can be employed, for example, to assess the importance of supply-chain development in governing the scale of economic impacts: the greater the degree of local embeddedness, the greater the impact on the host economy