Approach to Addressing the Economic Accountability Challenge, (An)

Increasing demands on state and federal governments in allocating scarce public funds have led to an increasing need for cooperative extension to demonstrate the economic benefits and impacts of extension programs in order to justify its funding. Economic impact studies of extension programs in Texas serve as the primary vehicle used to demonstrate economic accountability to these key funding sources, and represent an increasingly important component of extension accountability. The implication of this applied research lies not only in the economic benefits of the selected examples presented here, but also in the development of a methodology and application to other states. [authors]