Fact of the Week: Technology-Based Economic Development Programs Generated 1,300 Additional Tech-Based Jobs Per Year Between 1981 and 2000

Since the late 1970s, states have developed, implemented, and adjusted a variety of tech-based economic development programs. These have included developing research parks, funding tech-based R&D at state universities, coordinating tech-focused public-private partnerships, public venture capital funds, small business innovation research (SBIR) programs, and tech deployment and transfer programs. But while such policies have been well documented and evaluated at the federal level, there have been fewer impact analyses at the state level.

Kevin Leicht and J. Craig Jenkins isolated the economic impact that various tech-based economic development programs have provided to their respective states. They broadly estimate that an additional year’s commitment to a “basket” of tech-based economic development programs provide an additional 1,300 tech-based jobs a year, while an additional year’s commitment to the SBIR provides 2,000 more jobs for the average state.