A Benefit-Cost Approach to the Evaluation of State Technology Development Programs

A benefit-cost study of New York State's Centers for Advanced Technology (CAT) program was undertaken to (1) respond to increasing legislative and executive demands for quantitative assessments of these programs; (2) demonstrate the feasibility, within identified limits, of evaluating the economic impacts of state technology programs; and (3) use the empirical findings to highlight important but largely ignored economic and political issues related to distributive criteria and differences in the distribution of benefits between producers and consumers. Estimated total state benefits related to increases in private- and public-sector research grants, technological innovation and increased productivity, increased or retained employment, and improved quality of the technical workforce ranged between $190 million and $360 million, or between three and six times New York's direct investment in the CAT program.