The Economic Value of WTAMU Main Report

WHILE WTAMU’s value to the Texas Panhandle is larger than simply
its economic impact, understanding the dollars and cents value is an
important asset to understanding the university’s value as a whole. In order to
fully assess WTAMU’s value to the regional economy, this report has evaluated
the university from the perspectives of economic impact analysis and
investment analysis.
From an economic impact perspective, we calculated that WTAMU generates
a total economic impact of $747.3 million in total added income for the
regional economy. This represents the sum of several different impacts, including
the university’s:
• Operations spending impact ($100.9 million);
• Research spending impact ($4.1 million);
• Construction spending impact ($3.6 million);
• Start-up company impact ($115.5 million);
• Visitor spending impact ($1.5 million);
• Student spending impact ($13.2 million); and
• Alumni impact ($508.4 million).
One out of every 23 jobs in the
Texas Panhandle is supported by the
activities of WTAMU and its students.
The total impact of $747.3 million is equivalent to
approximately 3.0% of the total GRP of the Texas Panhandle
and is equivalent to supporting 12,225 jobs. For perspective, this means
that one out of every 23 jobs in the Texas Panhandle is supported by the activities
of WTAMU and its students.
Since WTAMU’s activity represents an investment by various parties, including
students, taxpayers, and society as a whole, we also considered the university
as an investment to see the value it provides to these investors. For each dollar
invested by students, taxpayers, and society, WTAMU offers a benefit of
$4.20, $3.40, and $8.00, respectively. These results indicate that WTAMU is
an attractive investment to students with rates of return that exceed alternative
investment opportunities. At the same time, the presence of the university
expands the state economy and creates a wide range of positive social benefits
that accrue to taxpayers and society in general within Texas.
Modeling the impact of the university is subject to many factors, the variability
of which we considered in our sensitivity analysis (Appendix 1). With this variability
accounted for, we present the findings of this study as a robust picture
of the economic value of WTAMU.
Chapter 4: Conclusion 65