Analysis and Methodology

Economic effects can be categorized into three main types of impacts: Direct Impacts represent the immediate spending and employment of the university, Indirect Impacts stem from supply chain effects, and the Induced Impacts represent the additional economic activity driven by household spending from wages.

The Direct Impacts from UCSB’s annual operations will directly employ faculty, staff, maintenance, and management, while the construction and maintenance of UCSB will directly support the local construction industry and related trades.

The Indirect Impacts capture the ripple effects through business-to-business relationships. Because UCSB is in Santa Barbara, it increases purchases from suppliers - everything from research equipment and food distributors to professional services like accounting and legal counsel. These suppliers then also increase their own purchases from their suppliers, creating a chain reaction through the supply network.

Induced Impacts reflect changes in household spending patterns. As employment and income in both the university and construction industry and its supply chain are affected, workers adjust their consumer spending accordingly. This affects revenue for local businesses in sectors like retail, restaurants, housing, and personal services.

To quantify these interconnected effects, the study utilizes IMPLAN, a specialized input-output modeling system. This software analyzes how economic changes propagate through regional industry relationships and spending patterns. The analysis also calculates the resulting changes in tax revenue across local, state, and federal government levels.

University operating expenditure and construction data were obtained from the University of California Office of the President and Office of Budget & Planning. According to the University of California Office of the President, UCSB's operating expenditure for 2024 was approximately $1.4 billion. The Office of Budget & Planning provided comprehensive data on UCSB construction and capital purchases spanning multiple years. UCSB's construction and capital expenditures were: $59.2 million in 2020, $33.4 million in 2021, $43.05 million in 2022, $41.36 million in 2023, $33.4 million in 2024, and $103.6 million in 2025. The substantial increase in construction costs for 2025 is primarily attributed to the new student housing construction project, San Benito, which will provide the campus with 2,224 additional undergraduate student beds.

To calculate total visitor spending per year, we utilized data gathered from the Office of the Chancellor regarding the number of visitors, including attendees of seminars, conferences, commencement ceremonies, alumni reunions, high school tours, campus events, and other registered visitors. We estimated approximately 181,000 visitors annually. Daily spending patterns per person were determined using data from VisitSB, which surveyed Santa Barbara visitors in 2022-2023. VisitSB estimated daily spending per person at approximately $211 in 2022 dollars. We assumed visitors spend an average of 2.9 days in the UCSB area and surrounding region. Based on these parameters, total visitor spending is calculated at approximately $112 million annually.¹

UCSB maintains comprehensive data on student enrollment and housing arrangements. The total number of students enrolled during the 2024-2025 academic year was 26,133. The housing distribution was as follows: 6,017 undergraduate students living on-campus in residence halls, 13,888 undergraduate students living off-campus, 2,769 undergraduate students living in on-campus apartments, 507 undergraduate students living at home, 1,376 graduate students living on-campus, and 1,576 graduate students living off-campus.

UCSB provides annual expenditure estimates by living location. Excluding tuition and campus fees, we calculated cost of living using UCSB estimates that include living expenses, books and supplies, transportation costs, UC student health insurance, personal expenses, and phone costs. By excluding tuition and fees—the primary cost differential between in-state and out-of-state students—we were able to apply uniform expenditure estimates across all student populations based on their housing situations.

Using these expenditure estimates and the distribution of students across different housing arrangements, total student spending is calculated at approximately $752 million annually.

1. This is an underestimate as we do not have full data on the number of visitors that come to Santa Barbara because of UCSB. This number is generated using data from registered visitors, and of course there will always be visitors who do not register. Back to text

Detailed IMPLAN Findings

UCSB: Operations, Visitor Spending, and Student Spending

Output and Employment

In this section, we will discuss the impact of the UCSB through operating expenditure, visitor spending, and student spending. The economic impact of the construction and maintenance of UCSB will be discussed in the section, “Construction and Maintenance of UCSB”. The IMPLAN program used the State/Local Govt Education (NAICS 12002) to analyze UCSB’s operating expenditures, Households 50-70k (NAICS 10005) to analyze visitor spending, and Households 15-30k (NAICS 10002) to analyze student spending in the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA MSA region. The total effects are the sum of the Direct, Indirect, and Induced effects in the County.

Table 1 indicates that operating expenses, student spending, and visitor spending produced $1.89 billion of Direct Output. When Indirect and Induced Output are added that number rises to $2.90 billion, giving an output multiplier of 1.53.

Table 2 indicates the breakdown of the Total Output of $2.90 billion, with the majority coming from University Operation (71.4%) and Student Spending (25.9%).

Tax Impacts

The Tax Impact Report from an analysis provides detailed information about taxes and other payments received by governments. It is calculated based on the collected and reported taxes within the region for the given data year. The categories within the Tax Impact Report correspond to the categories found in the detailed Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). Within the SAM and Tax Impact report, tax revenue flows to the government via different tax types and from various paying entities.

Table 3 reports the annual tax impact by impact type and Table 4 reports the annual tax impact by event type. Taxes are levied at different levels of government. In IMPLAN, we display tax results for the following levels of government; Federal, State, County, Sub County General, and Sub County Special Districts. Sub County General includes city and township governments. Sub County Special includes fire and public school districts.

Construction and Maintenance of UCSB (2020-2025)

Output and Employment

The IMPLAN program used the Construction of new educational and vocational structures (NAICS 48) and Maintenance and repair construction of nonresidential structures (NAICS 55) to analyze construction and maintenance at UCSB in the Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA MSA region. Data was used from 2020 to 2025 to describe the cost of new construction and the cost of maintenance for UCSB buildings. The total effects are the sum of the Direct, Indirect, and Induced effects in the MSA region.

Table 5 indicates that the construction and maintenance between 2020-2025 produced $374 million of Direct Output. When Indirect and Induced Output are added that number rises to $527.10 million, giving an output multiplier of 1.41.

Tax Impacts

Table 6 reports the tax impact by impact type. Taxes are levied at different levels of government. In IMPLAN, we display tax results for the following levels of government; Federal, State, County, Sub County General, and Sub County Special Districts. Sub County General includes city and township governments. Sub County Special includes fire and public school districts.