-
12. Extending Economic Development Analysis to Other Human Development Programs: Education, Public Health, Crime Reduction
- W.E. Upjohn Institute
- Chapter
- Additional Information
333 12 Extending Economic Development Analysis to Other Human Development Programs Education, Public Health, Crime Reduction Early childhood programs are just one type of human development program.TheeconomicdevelopmentanalysisthatIhaveappliedtoearly childhood programs can be applied to other programs than enhance human capital. Any program that increases the quantity or quality of human capital will stimulate earnings creation in a state economy. In this chapter, I illustrate how this economic development analysis can be extended to other human development programs. I consider the following types of human development policies: • Policies to improve K–12 test scores; • Policies to improve educational attainment (high school graduation , college graduation); • Policies to improve public health; and • Policies to reduce crime rates. This book does not consider the details of additional policies— beyond early childhood programs—that could improve human capital in these policy areas. Instead, I estimate the economic development benefits for state economies of improving key human development outcomes. These outcomes include education test scores, educational attainment, crime, and public health indicators. Future studies could match up these estimates with estimates of the costs of achieving these outcomes. This matching would allow comparing economic development benefits to costs of human development policies. Previous studies have considered the economic effects of improving these human development outcomes. For example, there are many studies by research organizations, interest groups, and academics of the eco- 334 Bartik nomic effects of improving K–12 education (Belfield and Levin 2007a; Hungerford and Wassmer 2004; Levin and Belfield 2007; McKinsey and Company 2009; National Education Association 2007). For postsecondary education, studies by the College Board, individual universities , and academics have considered the economic effects of improving college education (Bartik and Erickcek 2008; Baum and Ma 2007; Siegfried, Sanderson, and McHenry 2006). Studies by think tanks and academics have considered the economic benefits of reducing crime (Greenwood et al. 1998; Holzer, Offner, and Sorensen 2005; Raphael 2007). Studies have estimated the economic effects of improvements to public health and medical care (Aos et al. 2006; Bartik and Erickcek 2008; Currie et al. 2009). Such economic analysis is sometimes meant to promote more funding for these human development programs. For example, in recent years, the National Education Association (NEA) has supported an initiative with the acronym TEF (Tax Structures, Economic Development, and Funding for Education). Under TEF, NEA and its state affiliates present information on the high costs of tax incentives for promoting economic development, and the potential economic development benefits of better K–12 education. According to NEA (2007), the TEF initiative is meant to promote the following argument: “Investing in education pays—always. But now more than ever . . . in the new knowledgebased global economy, investing in public education—in our human capital—provides a greater return to our economic prosperity investment than tax cuts and subsidies.” What this book does differently is to focus on how these human development outcomes offer economic development benefits at the state level. This focus on state-level effects means that I adjust downward for participants in these programs who move out-of-state. The focus on economic development benefits means that I adjust downward for displacement effects. I want to estimate the net effects of human development programs on state economies, not just effects on individuals. Policies targeting human development have been justified on the basis of economic development benefits. For example, the “Kalamazoo Promise” program was apparently intended by its anonymous donors to promote the economic development of Kalamazoo (Miller-Adams 2009). The Kalamazoo Promise, begun in 2005, provides graduates of Kalamazoo Public Schools with up to 100 percent subsidies for college [34.237.245.80] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 11:05 GMT) Extending Economic Development Analysis 335 tuition. The Kalamazoo Promise is in part intended to increase high school and college graduation rates. But in so doing, the donors apparently believe that the Promise will attract households and businesses to Kalamazoo. Households will be attracted by the tuition benefit for their children. Businesses will be attracted because households are attracted, and because of the Promise’s effects on educational attainment. The focus of this chapter is somewhat different from Richard Florida’s well-known focus on the role of the so-called creative class in regional development (Florida 2002). Florida’s work has focused on how overall regional growth is affected by attracting or retaining highly creative persons. Thus, Florida’s focus is on growth in the size of the overall local economy, whereas I focus on the earnings per capita of the original...