economic impact report

Despite being hit with a recession brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest 5-year impact report from Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP) shows even higher growth than the previous five years. The most recent analysis, The Economic Impact of Ben Franklin Technology Partners, reveals that BFTP generated $400 million in tax receipts for the state and boosted Pennsylvania’s overall economy by $6.1 billion between 2017 and 2021, contributing to an overall boost of more than $30 billion since the program began more than 40 years ago.

The South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA) had an economic impact of over $1.15 billion in FY 2022, through follow-on funding, grants awarded, investments made by affiliate SC Launch Inc, job support and more,  according to their annual report. This total is an increase of almost 15% from their economic impact in FY 2021. The report was compiled by SCRA with assistance on the economic impacts provided by the University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business. 

In an effort to help to determine the economic impact of higher education institutions and hospitals within their regions and how reliant these regions are on these “anchor institutions” to drive their economy, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia developed an Anchor Economy Initiative. It recently published an Anchor Economy Report and created the Anchor Economy Dashboard, a new data set and website that measures employment, income, and gross value added from the institutions and hospitals, along with a new reliance index tool, for all 524 multicounty U.S. regions (394 metropolitan and 130 nonmetropolitan).

The venture development organizations BioCrossroads, BioSTL, JumpStart, and LaunchNY recently published their economic impact reports for 2021. These organizations primarily assist businesses from Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, and New York respectively.

Venture development organizations in Pennsylvania and Columbus recently released their economic impact reports for 2021. The reports from Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP) and Rev1 Ventures show creation and retention of more than 16,000 jobs, $2.1 billion in client revenue, and almost $1.2 billion in capital raised.

With a 20-year history, the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) is reporting an economic impact in 2021 four times greater than what they experienced in 2013. A new independent study found that its six core programs have provided “significant value” to the state’s start-up community, supporting over 10,000 jobs and more than $2 billion in statewide economic activity as of 2021. Meanwhile, BioCrossroads, a non-profit based in Indianapolis, has reported growth in its life sciences initiatives over the past 15 years. BioCrossroads conducts market research and promotes business and technological innovation in life sciences across Indiana. Both TEDCO and BioCrossroads have utilized public capital to develop industry within their respective target states.

State and regional innovation programs continue to encourage significant economic growth across the country. The most recent example of the impact programs are having comes from JumpStart, a Cleveland-based venture development organization, which recently released its 2018 economic impact report. It found that companies in Ohio and New York fostered by JumpStart generated more than $1 billion in economic impact. This increased the cumulative JumpStart total to $6.6 billion since 2010.

TEDCO’s current portfolio of assisted companies has grown to 326 companies and more than 3,100 jobs, according to an economic impact report by the University of Baltimore’s Jacob France Institute and TEConomy Partners. TEDCO was created by the Maryland State Legislature in 1998 to facilitate the transfer and commercialization of technology from Maryland’s research universities and federal labs into the marketplace. The direct Maryland economic activity generated by these core programs totaled nearly $900 million in 2018, a considerable increase from the $572.3 million in economic activity reported in 2015. Of all TEDCO programs, the Seed Investment Fund has the largest direct impact, accounting for more than half of all employment and direct economic activity.

An independent economic analysis of the Ben Franklin Technology Partners reveals its impact on Pennsylvania’s economy — boosting the overall economy by $4.1 billion between 2012 and 2016, helping to create 11,407 high-paying jobs and generating $385 million in tax receipts for the state. Because the jobs were created in industries that pay 52 percent higher than the average nonfarm salary in Pennsylvania, the impact on the state’s GSP was greater, according to the report. However, such impact is threatened by decreasing state funding in the program, which is limiting the partners’ ability to fund companies and creating missed opportunities, according to BFTP. State funding for BFTP has dropped more than 50 percent since 2007-08.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced on Tuesday that median household income increased to $56,516 in 2015, a jump of 5.2 percent from the 2014 median income of $53,718 and the first increase since 2007.  However, real median household income in 2015 was 1.6 percent lower than in 2007, the year before the Great Recession, and 2.4 percent lower than the median household income peak, which occurred in 1999. Ten states (HI, KY, MT, NH, OR, RI, TN, VT, WI and WY) and the District of Columbia saw median household incomes increase by more than 5 percent, although with the margin of error it is possible that some of these states saw increases of less than 1 percent, according to data presented in Table 1 of Household Income: 2015. Only Puerto Rico saw the median household income decline from 2014 levels; ID and NJ saw increases of less than 1 percent. The U.S. Census Bureau also announced that the nation’s official poverty rate in 2015 was 13.5 percent, a 1.2 percentage point decrease in the poverty rate from 2014. The decrease represents the largest annual percentage point drop in poverty since 1999. The findings are contained in Income and Poverty in the United States: 2015.