Penn's economic impact on Pennsylvania: $14.3 billion

Many have known for years that the benefits of an Ivy League education are plentiful.

Now comes a report on the University of Pennsylvania that shows those benefits extend to many others than just the students who attend the school.

Penn in 2015 contributed $14.3 billion to Pennsylvania's economy - or $39 million per day, according to a report by Econsult Solutions, Inc. of Philadelphia, which Penn hired to do the study. That's up from $14 billion for 2010, the last time the university released an economic snapshot.

The contribution includes $10.8 billion or $29.6 million per day to the City of Philadelphia. One of every nine jobs in the city's economy are generated by Penn, the city's largest private employer, the report said.

"The University of Pennsylvania and its Health System are an innovating force for good in Philadelphia, our region, society and the world: advancing creative knowledge, making impactful discoveries, sustaining health and educating great new leaders," Penn President Amy Gutmann said in a statement. "As Philadelphia's largest private employer, Penn provides 37,000 stable jobs with good wages and exceptional benefits. Penn powers key sectors of our regional economy while contributing in manifold ways to making Philadelphia a thriving and exciting place to live, work, study and visit."

The report comes as Penn continues to face pressure from some groups to begin contributing what's known as PILOTs, or payment in lieu or taxes, to the city, particularly to help its cash-starved public school system. Mayor Nutter didn't pursue asking Penn to pay, but Mayor Kenney has expressed interest in seeking PILOTs from the city's universities.

"Given that Philadelphia faces the highest poverty rate of our country's top ten largest cities and we have limited options for revenue that wouldn't further burden our working families, he believes PILOTs are more than worth exploring," Lauren Hitt, Kenney's spokeswoman, said recently.

But it's not something Kenney will move on immediately. Don't expect anything in his first budget, she said.
"We need to be realistic - this is not something that's going to come quickly or something that's going to solve all of our financial problems," she said. "It's not even something that could pay for big initiatives like Pre-K."

The Econsult report showed that Penn employs 37,000 and generated directly and indirectly 90,400 jobs in 2015, including workers on construction projects, in professional services and in manufacturing.

The university also brought in $939 million in research funding, and Penn students, patients and visitors to campus spent $279 million on local goods and services, the report said.