Estimating the Economic Impacts of a Digital Marketing Education Program on U.S. Entrepreneurs: A Hybrid Approach
ISSN 2158-9429
Volume 16, Issue 2 - December 2023
Editor: Linda Chalker-Scott
Abstract
Extension professionals are required to document the economic impact of their programs to justify resources and communicate results to the public. This study provides a new, comprehensive modeling approach to estimate an Extension program's direct microeconomic and indirect macroeconomic benefits. Using an Extension program that provided digital marketing education training for 1,259 U.S. veteran-owned businesses, the approach demonstrates how to estimate both impacts. An estimated $5.8 million in indirect macroeconomic benefits would have been overlooked without following this more robust approach. Extension professionals can use this hybrid modeling approach to estimate more comprehensive impacts, often excluded from program evaluation analyses.
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