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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Regional Economics

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Selected Works

2015

Business incentives

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Benefits Vs. Costs Of Business Incentives, Timothy J. Bartik Dec 2015

Benefits Vs. Costs Of Business Incentives, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


Economic Development Strategies, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Economic Development Strategies, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

This paper provides a guide to economic development policies for local government managers. Local economic development policies today include not only tax subsidies for branch plants, but also job training to provide workers to businesses, advice and support services for potential entrepreneurs, and extension services to help businesses modernize and export. To help local government managers, this paper suggests a number of guiding principles, including: local economic development should be pursued cooperatively across the local labor market; economic development programs should consider the quality of jobs created; tax subsidies are expensive per job created; development subsidies are more effective if …


Saturn And State Economic Development, Timothy J. Bartik, Charles Becker, Steve Lake, John Bush Jan 2015

Saturn And State Economic Development, Timothy J. Bartik, Charles Becker, Steve Lake, John Bush

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.


Incentive Solutions, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Incentive Solutions, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

This paper reviews the research literature relevant to economic development incentives provided by state and local governments, and recommends reforms in these incentives. I argue that the main problem with current incentive policies is that state and local governments often provide incentives that are not in the best interest of that state or local area, for example that are excessively costly per job created, or that provide jobs that do not improve the job opportunities of local residents. I suggest that reforms should be "bottom-up" rather than "top-down." Regulation of incentives by the federal government, or by international trade treaties, …


What Should Michigan Be Doing To Promote Long-Run Economic Development?, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

What Should Michigan Be Doing To Promote Long-Run Economic Development?, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

This paper argues that Michigan can take cost-effective actions to significantly improve the primary state economic development goal: higher per capita income of Michigan's residents. Higher per capita income of Michigan's residents can be achieved through state policy actions that use cost-effective means to either lower the marginal costs of businesses that expand in the state, or boost the skills of state residents. In this paper, I offer eight ideas for how to lower marginal business costs and boost skills. Four of these ideas focus on lowering marginal business costs. Four other ideas focus on boosting skills. For each of …


Local Economic Development Policies, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Local Economic Development Policies, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

This chapter seeks to provide useful advice for local government policy towards economic development programs. The chapter: reviews the size and scope of local economic development programs in the United States; critically analyzes the various rationales offered for these programs; makes recommendations for what local policy should do about business attraction and incentives, business retention, new business development, high technology development, brownfield development, distressed neighborhoods, and downtowns; and discusses how local economic development programs should be organized, managed, and evaluated.


Increasing The Economic Development Benefits Of Higher Education In Michigan, Timothy J. Bartik Jan 2015

Increasing The Economic Development Benefits Of Higher Education In Michigan, Timothy J. Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

This paper considers how a state such as Michigan can increase the economic development benefits of higher education. Research evidence suggests that higher education increases local economic development principally by increasing the quality of the local workforce, and secondarily by increasing local innovative ideas. These economic development benefits of higher education can be increased by: 1) competent management of conventional economic development programs that focus on business attraction and retention; 2) policies that focus on increasing local job skills by educating the state's residents, as opposed to attracting in-migrants; 3) policies that address specific "market failures" in how higher education …