The NASA Glenn Research Center: an Economic Impact Study

This study describes the impact of GRC on the State of Ohio and on Northeast Ohio, where GRC is located. Northeast Ohio includes the eight counties in the Akron and Cleveland metropolitan areas.1 This report is an expansion and update of an earlier study, published in February 1996.2 As before, this study employs two methods to determine GRC’s influence on the state and local economies. The first method uses quantitative models to estimate the effect of GRC on the studied economies. These models measure economic impact in terms of growth in total output, household earnings, and number of new jobs created. The second method uses GRC’s internal documents and interviews with GRC’s staff, as well as interviews with leaders in industry, academia, and the non-profit sector who are affiliated with GRC or are knowledgeable about its activities. This is the primary method in the analysis of GRC’s technology transfer activities and its educational contributions.