Estimating the long-term economic impacts of Spanish universities on the national economy

In contrast to previous studies on the economic impact of universities that focus on the demand side, this study centres on universities’ effects on the supply side of the economy. Through a case study of the Spanish University System, this paper proposes a methodology based on counterfactual scenarios and growth accounting to estimate the long-term impacts of universities on their regional economies. Our study evaluates the stylized impacts of universities’ activities on human capital, salaries and occupation of the working age population, on generation of technological capital and, finally, on the GDP growth of the Spanish economy in the period 1989–2010. JEL classification: I23, I25