Have questions about this report? Ask the author(s).
Critiques the return-on-investment rankings of institutions of higher education published by PayScale. Significant methodological and data issues are identified.
After completing his undergraduate degree in economics at Wake Forest University, Kent received his Ph.D. in economics from Rice University in 1979. He was an assistant professor at ASU from 1978 to 1983. After leaving the university for seven years, during which he worked in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, he returned to ASU to teach in 1991. He joined ASU’s L. William Seidman Research Institute in 1999.
Dennis received a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Grand Valley State University, a M.S. in economics from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University in 1978. He has served on the faculty of the Department of Economics at ASU since 1979, as director of ASU’s L. William Seidman Research Institute since 2004, and as the director of the Office of the University Economist since 2005.
After receiving his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Toledo, Tom earned his Master of Business Administration from Arizona State University in 1976. After working in the private sector, he joined ASU in 1980, working for the predecessor of the L. William Seidman Research Institute. Since 2005, he has served as manager of research initiatives in the Office of the University Economist.
An update to the November 2022 paper that presented data through 2021, estimates are presented of the number of ASU graduates working in Arizona, as well as their average wage, aggregate wages, and tax payments. Estimates are made for each year from 2012 through 2022.
The spending of Arizona State University and its employees, students, and visitors in fiscal year 2023 had the following direct, indirect, and induced impacts on the Arizona economy: gross product of $5.75 billion, labor income of $3.58 billion, and employment of 56,930.
Since the early 1990s, the Arizona Legislature has repeatedly reduced tax rates and narrowed tax bases of revenue sources used by state government — particularly of those sources providing revenue to the general fund. The tax reductions usually were passed with the…