Summary and Conclusions We find that NASA procurement spending of $8.6 billion in 1987 created 209,000 private sector jobs, $18 billion in private industry sales, and $2 billion in corporate profits, and generated $5.6 billion in Federal, state, and local government tax revenues. These benefits were widely dispersed throughout the United States and are significant in many states not normally considered to be major benefactors of NASA spending. This study finds that the industries benefiting the most from NASA procurement include many in the basic manufacturing and the high technology areas. Examining the indirect effects of NASA procurement emphasizes that NASA spending supports such basic industries as Iron and Steel Manufacturing, Metalworking Machinery, and Chemicals as well as high technology industries like Electronic Components, Communications Equipment, and Electrical and Wiring Equipment. The jobs created are disproportionately concentrated among Scientists, Engineers, and skilled workers and NASA programs are a significant determinant in the labor market for some Science and Engineering occupations. Nevertheless, the study determines that NASA expenditures create in absolute terms many more jobs for blue collar and lesser skilled labor not normally linked to the Space Program. Substantial numbers of jobs are created in virtually every industry and every occupation. As expected, significant industry and job benefits accrue to those states such as California, Texas, and Florida that are the largest direct recipients of NASA program funds. However, a major contribution of this study is in determining that all states benefit economically from the Space Program and that substantial economic benefits accrue to states other than those receiving the prime contract awards. We estimated the indirect economic benefits to each state resulting from the U.S. Space program - the benefits flowing from the second- third- and fourth rounds of industry purchases generated by NASA procurement expenditures. For some states, such as Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, these are found to be very high, with ratios of indirect to direct benefits of 8 to 1 and higher. Each state is ranked on the basis of several criteria, including the total benefits, indirect benefits, and per capita benefits received from NASA spending. These criteria permit the identification of the states benefitting the most, both directly and indirectly, from the U.S. Space Program. We find that while high prime contract award states such as California, Texas, and Florida benefit greatly from NASA procurement spending, so also do other states such as Illinois, which receive only a relatively small portion of NASA contracts. As shown in Figure 2, these "winners" include many states not usually linked to the Space Program, such as New Jersey, Arizona, Minnesota, Illinois, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, and North Carolina.
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