A recent study conducted by the L. William Seidman Research Institute at the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University reveals that ASU Research Park tenants generate 16,160 jobs for Arizona residents, provide labor income of $865 million for Arizona workers, and account for $1.418 billion in total income.
Labor income is the full compensation paid to workers and total income is the sum of labor income and capital income, including company earnings.
“The ASU Research Park operations and its tenants have a very significant economic impact on our state,” said Dr. Morgan R. Olsen, ASU Research Park Board president and ASU’s executive vice president, treasurer and CFO. “The combination of the Park’s unparalleled business environment and Arizona State University’s commitment to conducting interdisciplinary, use-inspired research will continue to attract great companies and a highly-skilled workforce, and will bring new jobs to our state.”
The economic impact analysis is comprised of three impact estimates: direct impacts, which include jobs and earnings of employees of ASU Research Park’s tenants; indirect impacts, which refer to the jobs and incomes supported by tenant purchases of goods and services from local suppliers; and induced impacts, which account for the additional jobs and incomes that are generated when a portion of the labor income received by tenant’s employees and the employees of its direct and indirect suppliers is spent within the local economy and when state and local governments spend new tax revenues.
According to Dr. Kent Hill, principal research economist in the Center for Competitiveness and Prosperity Research at the Seidman Institute, “Activity at ASU Research Park has grown rapidly over the past four years. Tenant employment is up 34 percent since 2012. This is good news for ASURP and good news for the technology sector in the Greater Phoenix area.”
Estimates in the economic impact study were made using data files and input-output relationships contained in IMPLAN, an economic impact software widely used by researchers throughout the United States.
The 320-acre ASU Research Park currently has 51 corporate tenants that employ more than 6,000 people among an impressive list of companies, including Amazon, Amkor Technology, Avnet, Edward Jones, Go Daddy, Iridium, PADT, and ViaSat. ASU MacroTechnology Works, home to ASU’s Flexible Electronics and Display Center and Solar Power Lab, also is located in the park.
