The Economic Impact of the University of Wyoming
Alexander, Anne M. McWhorter, Dallas Wright, Andrew
Alexander, Anne M.
McWhorter, Dallas
Wright, Andrew
Abstract
In this report, we summarize the economic impacts that would not occur in Wyoming but for the university and directly attributable to external funding coming to Wyoming and/or as a result of the university’s varied and distinct activities. These include direct expenditures by UW Athletics, UW employees, nonresident students and visitors, externally funded research support, spin-outs and startup businesses directly resulting from UW research, and UW alumni living and working in Wyoming. Using the most conservative estimation methods and not including the impacts of UW alumni working in Wyoming, we find that UW creates:
- Over $720 million in value added to the economy of Wyoming annually
- Nearly 14,700 jobs annually
- Nearly $49,000 value added per job.
In addition, we find that UW alumni living in the state make a significant impact on Wyoming’s economy. Using a tool which is able to match around 50% of UW’s alumni profiles, we find the estimated total earnings of UW alumni living in Wyoming is around $394 million annually. These total earnings have total induced value-added impact of $640 million to the Wyoming economy annually. If you only take into account the earnings premium, or the wage differential for having a bachelor’s degree or higher, their total average earning differential is over $92 million and their induced value added to the economy is around $531 million annually. With this additional information on alumni earnings, we estimate that the total economic impact of UW annually is between approximately $1.25 billion and $1.36 billion.
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Date
2024-08
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University of Wyoming Libraries
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Keywords
economic impact,value added,alumni,jobs,tax revenue