UC Davis is undertaking an extensive study of the economic impact that the university and its health system have in the Sacramento metropolitan area and beyond.

The analysis will look at the regional influence of the university’s nearly $2 billion annual budget, its payroll, the activities of its students, faculty, staff and alumni, cultural events and industry spin-offs. The study will also look at any negative impacts, such as losses of tax revenue to local governments.

The study will complement a more generalized economic impact of the 10-campus UC system being conducted by the UC Office of the President. The UC Davis report will provide more specific detail about local impacts of the Davis campus.

Draft results are expected in late summer from the study, which is being conducted by the Sedway Group, a San Francisco economic consulting firm that has done similar analyses for UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco.

"UC Davis is one of the largest employers in our region, with one of the biggest payrolls, and we produce a product of intellectual property and public service that is hard to quantify," said John Meyer, vice chancellor for resource management and planning. "I think it will be revealing to see the depth and breadth of campus impacts."

"This study will allow us to document and quantify the varied contributions of the university to the economies of the local community, region and state," said Karl Mohr, who is managing the project for the Office of Resource Management and Planning. "In a time of scarce budget resources, we also hope this analysis will reinforce the value of investment in higher education and academic research."

The $80,000 study is getting under way this winter with data being gathered now by numerous campus units. The impact of the campus will be analyzed in the following key areas:

• Direct economic impacts of campus-related spending including payroll and retirement payments, vendor payments, capital expenditures, student, alumni and visitor spending;

• Indirect economic impacts created by the multiplier effect of campus spending generating additional non-campus jobs, income, and spending;

• Sponsored research impacts including attraction of research funding to the campus and spin-off benefits of research such as patents and technology transfer;

• Business community impacts through case studies of local or regional businesses founded by UC alumni or faculty;

• Community and regional impacts including public service, cultural and recreational opportunities; and

• Negative community impacts such as losses of local property tax revenue from exemptions, impacts to local municipal services, housing and traffic.

The analysis will focus on UC Davis’ influence in three geographic areas: the local Davis community; the seven-county region including El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Solano, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties; and the state of California.

"This is an ambitious undertaking on many fronts, not the least of which will be assembling base data," Mohr said. "We are relying on many campus units to provide the information necessary to prepare the analysis."

Among the items being collected are student living expenditures in the local community, housing of students and staff, campus visitorship and courses taught by UC Davis University Extension. The study will also analyze where campus and health system employees work and live and the geographic distribution of UC Davis alumni.

To help determine local impacts, the study will examine county and city services used by UC Davis’ population, as well as public services provided by the university to the broader community. Volunteerism will be looked at, particularly volunteer work done by students in the community. The study will also detail public use of university facilities, including the arboretum and the airport.

The UC Berkeley study, released in January 2002, found that the institution was responsible for contributing to the Bay Area’s "culture of innovation." It also found that UC Berkeley drew 75 percent of its $1.2 billion in revenue from outside the Bay Area, and spent about 70 percent, or $842 million, in the Bay Area.

"The bottom line," said the Berkeley study, "is that UC Berkeley provides a net contribution to the Bay Area of more than half a billion dollars a year."

The UC Berkeley study is available online at: http://www.berkeley.edu/econimpact/econ-impact.pdf. Detail about the systemwide UC study can be found at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/economy/impactreports.html.