Department of Commerce Study Finds Incubators Boost Job Creation
A study released last week by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration, in partnership with consulting firm Grant Thornton LLP, found that supporting business incubators, including those multi-dimensional support programs that help scientists with innovative ideas turn them into successful companies, is one of the most efficient and effective way to create jobs. Incubators can provide financial, legal, and networking opportunities that are often the difference between failure and success for young companies.
The study found that incubators are: “More effective than roads and bridges, industrial parks, commercial buildings, and sewer and water projects. In fact, incubators provide up to 20 times more jobs than community infrastructure projects (e.g., water and sewer projects) at a cost of $144 to $216 per job compared with $2,920 to $6,872 for the latter.”
The current stimulus plan includes billions of dollars in infrastructure improvements, “shovel-ready” projects that promise to send America back to work building bridges, mass transit, highways, and the like. These infrastructure investments are critically important to stimulate our rapidly deteriorating economy, but helping business incubators help emerging growth companies can also create key long-term jobs in high-tech infrastructure, according to the study.
Considering the best way to stimulate the economy, studies like this one that highlight innovative ways to create jobs are important for legislators to take to heart. Pulling the country up by its boot straps will take more than investing in projects with definite time horizons. Congress needs to heed the advice of the EDA study and other research that advocates for investments in business incubators and concomitant innovation clusters, both of which will help boost our nation’s long-term economic competitiveness. Science Progress recently profiled one such incubator, the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, as part of our continuing policy work to promote regional centers of innovation around the nation.
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