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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Scoring Soar, Timothy J. Bartik
Scoring Soar, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
This paper estimates the benefits and costs of the incentive package provided to the proposed Ford battery plant in Marshall, Michigan. This project, announced in February 2023, involves a state and local business incentive package whose undiscounted value is $1.7 billion, and which is awarded to a plant that will eventually create 2,500 permanent jobs. The incentive package is analyzed using the Bartik Benefit-Cost Model of Incentives. The model’s estimates suggest that the incentive package has economic benefits whose present value is over 1.8 times the project’s incentive costs. Most of these benefits are higher earnings per capita for Michigan …
Seize The Time: Needed Research On Local Economic Development In An Era Of Increased Attention To Problems Of Place, Timothy J. Bartik
Seize The Time: Needed Research On Local Economic Development In An Era Of Increased Attention To Problems Of Place, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
With the increased attention to place-based policies comes an increased need for policy-relevant research on local economic development. Within the policy area of local economic development, this paper identifies five types of research needs: 1) better definitions of local labor markets; 2) policy know-how on how local economic development’s benefits can be better spread to distressed neighborhoods; 3) evidence on what types of jobs have both good growth prospects in the U.S. economy yet also provide good long-run job opportunities in local labor markets for the majority of U.S. workers who lack a bachelor’s degree; 4) estimates of how local …
Broadening Place-Based Jobs Policies: How To Both Target Job Creation And Broaden Its Reach, Timothy J. Bartik
Broadening Place-Based Jobs Policies: How To Both Target Job Creation And Broaden Its Reach, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
Many places in the United States are distressed in that they have low “employment rates” (employment to population ratios). In my recent report for the Brookings Metro Policy program (Bartik 2020b), I proposed helping the most distressed local labor markets, comprising 15 percent of the U.S. population, by a federal block grant of $11 billion annually to provide public services to create local jobs. The present policy paper outlines how this block grant can be broadened, while remaining targeted. The block grant is broadened by adding $3 billion for more moderately distressed local labor markets, comprising an additional 15 percent …
Bringing Jobs To People: Improving Local Economic Development Policies, Timothy J. Bartik
Bringing Jobs To People: Improving Local Economic Development Policies, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
Many local labor markets in the United States suffer from low employment rates, but getting people to move out of these distressed areas is difficult. Moreover, moving people to job-rich regions does not help those left behind, as out-migration destroys jobs in distressed areas. A better way to help the residents of distressed areas is through local economic development policies that boost job growth and employment rates in a sustained fashion. Such policies can successfully encourage local business and job growth through business tax incentives, cash grants, or customized public services, such as advice to small businesses, job training, infrastructure …
Place-Based Policy: An Essay In Two Parts, Timothy J. Bartik
Place-Based Policy: An Essay In Two Parts, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
Place-based policies that increase jobs in local labor markets can have large benefits, but current policies need reforms. Local job growth can have large benefits by increasing local employment-to-population ratios (employment rates). These employment rate benefits are larger if jobs are created in local labor markets that are distressed, or if new jobs are matched to the local nonemployed. Current place-based policies are mostly business tax incentives, provided by state and local governments. These incentives are costly per job actually created by the incentive. More cost-effective job creation are public services to businesses, such as customized job training or business …
Promise Scholarship Programs And Local Prosperity, Michelle Miller-Adams, Edward Smith
Promise Scholarship Programs And Local Prosperity, Michelle Miller-Adams, Edward Smith
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
We argue that place-based college scholarships, if designed intentionally and leveraged effectively, can foster local economic development. Since the introduction of the Kalamazoo Promise in 2005, a growing number of communities have applied the place-based approach to investments in human capital through the creation of college scholarship programs. Reviewing the existing literature on educational and economic outcomes associated with Promise programs reveals that they can expand students’ postsecondary aspirations, improve a school district’s college-going culture, and increase college enrollment and degree attainment while promoting in-migration of residents and positive growth in housing prices. Therefore, these programs can serve a broader …
The U.S. Economic Crisis And A Revised New Jobs Tax Credit, Timothy J. Bartik
The U.S. Economic Crisis And A Revised New Jobs Tax Credit, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
An efficacious economic stimulus to help the U.S. economy recover from its current recession is the revival of the New Jobs Tax Credit. Unlike the original credit utilized by the federal government in 1977– 1978, the new version should be a refundable credit but at a lower current dollar value. My 2001 book, Jobs for the Poor: Can Labor Demand Policies Help? proposed a permanent version f the New Jobs Tax Credit that would be automatically triggered when the unemployment rate is high. My estimates, updated to 2008, suggest that such a revised credit might increase aggregate U.S. employment by …
Is There A Role For Public Support Of Incumbent Worker On-The-Job Training?, Kevin Hollenbeck
Is There A Role For Public Support Of Incumbent Worker On-The-Job Training?, Kevin Hollenbeck
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
States have begun to use training subsidies as a policy tool for employment retention and business competitiveness. This paper summarizes a survey of states concerning their investments in incumbent worker training. Altogether, states are investing about $550 to $800 million, which is perhaps one percent or less of total private sector training costs. The paper further discusses a study conducted for one state in which we found significant fiscal returns implying that underinvestment of public funds for incumbent worker training may be occurring. In this state, primary sector jobs were created or retained at a public cost of less than …
How Do The Effects Of Local Growth On Employment Rates Vary With Initial Labor Market Conditions?, Timothy J. Bartik
How Do The Effects Of Local Growth On Employment Rates Vary With Initial Labor Market Conditions?, Timothy J. Bartik
Upjohn Institute Policy Papers
This paper examines how the effects of increased employment growth on a metropolitan area’s employment to population ratio varies with the initial tightness of the metropolitan area’s labor market. This examination is relevant to evaluating the benefits of local economic development policies in different metropolitan areas. Much of the benefits of such policies are in higher employment rates. The empirical estimates suggest that the effectiveness of employment growth in increasing the employment to population ratio is lower in metropolitan areas with “tight” labor markets. In addition, some estimates suggest that growth has the greatest long-run effects on the employment to …