Tuesday morning, Scioto Analysis released a cost-benefit analysis on AmeriCorps public service programs in Ohio. Co-authors Rob Moore and Noah Stein project that additional funding for state volunteerism programs could result in millions of dollars of economic benefits to the state.
“Public service programs are usually lauded for how they foster civic engagement,” said Stein. “Our analysis builds on that, finding that service programs also boost future wages for participants.”
Overall, the analysts found that every dollar in tax distortion and lost current wage costs due to the program was offset by one to two and a half dollars of benefits in boosted future wages, crime reduction, and increased future volunteering. The paper also touches on distributional impacts, highlighting the immediate cost to participants contrasted against the more larger long-term income gains for program participants.
“Public service programs act much like a year of higher education due to boosts to human capital and general future earning capacity,” said Moore. “Participants in AmeriCorps trade off current labor market earnings in order to boost their earnings down the road.”
Another major impact of public service programs is reduction in probability for participants to conduct crime in the future due to program participation. Career criminality exacts large costs on society, and even marginal reductions in criminality caused by these programs yield large social benefits.
Overall, the analysts estimate that expansion of volunteer options by the state of Ohio would produce $1-30 million in net benefits when balancing the opportunity costs and taxpayer burden with the benefits participants experience from their time volunteering.
This is the third best-practices cost-benefit analysis conducted on a state policy in the state of Ohio in the past decade. The first, Ohio Earned Income Tax Credit Refundability: A Cost-Benefit Analysis, was released by Scioto Analysis in August 2019, followed by a second, Closing Schools for COVID-19: A Cost-Benefit Analysis, which was released in June.