IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v234y2024ics0165176523004779.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do big shifts in economic development incentives attract people?

Author

Listed:
  • Duan, Huiqiong
  • Rogers, Cynthia
  • Wang, Jia
  • Yuan, Weici

Abstract

State and local governments use economic development incentives (EDI) extensively to promote employment and economic growth. Research suggests that new jobs may go primarily to in-migrants rather than existing workers, which raises questions about who benefits from incentivizing employment (Bartik, 1993). Using a prominent national incentives database, we use event-study and regression frameworks to investigate the impacts of large, abrupt changes in state-level EDI programs on migration. Our results suggest increased net in-migration during the first year after a large change in EDI policy. We find no evidence of employment growth impacts.

Suggested Citation

  • Duan, Huiqiong & Rogers, Cynthia & Wang, Jia & Yuan, Weici, 2024. "Do big shifts in economic development incentives attract people?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:234:y:2024:i:c:s0165176523004779
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111451
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176523004779
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111451?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Goodman, D. Jay, 2003. "Are Economic Development Incentives Worth it? A Computable General Equilibirum Analysis of Pueblo, Colorado's Efforts to Attract Business," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 33(1), pages 1-13.
    2. Conway, Karen Smith & Rork, Jonathan C., 2006. "State "Death" Taxes and Elderly Migration—the Chicken or the Egg?," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 59(1), pages 97-128, March.
    3. Cailin R. Slattery & Owen M. Zidar, 2020. "Evaluating State and Local Business Tax Incentives," NBER Working Papers 26603, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Timothy J. Bartik, "undated". "Who Benefits from Local Job Growth: Migrants or Original Residents?," Upjohn Working Papers tjb1993rs, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    5. Freedman, Matthew, 2012. "Teaching new markets old tricks: The effects of subsidized investment on low-income neighborhoods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 1000-1014.
    6. Jensen, Nathan M., 2017. "Job creation and firm-specific location incentives," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 85-112, March.
    7. Jia Wang & Stephen E. Ellis & Cynthia Rogers, 2018. "Income Inequality and Economic Development Incentives in US States: Robin Hood in Reverse?," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 48(1), pages 93-117, Spring.
    8. Mark W. Frank, 2009. "Inequality And Growth In The United States: Evidence From A New State‐Level Panel Of Income Inequality Measures," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(1), pages 55-68, January.
    9. Cailin Slattery & Owen Zidar, 2020. "Evaluating State and Local Business Incentives," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(2), pages 90-118, Spring.
    10. Jia Wang & Weici Yuan & Cynthia Rogers, 2020. "Economic Development Incentives: What Can We Learn From Policy Regime Changes?," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 34(2), pages 116-125, May.
    11. Wang, Jia, 2018. "Strategic interaction and economic development incentives policy: Evidence from U.S. States," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 249-259.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Freedman, Matthew & Khanna, Shantanu & Neumark, David, 2023. "Combining rules and discretion in economic development policy: Evidence on the impacts of the California Competes Tax Credit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    2. Jia Wang & Weici Yuan & Cynthia Rogers, 2020. "Economic Development Incentives: What Can We Learn From Policy Regime Changes?," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 34(2), pages 116-125, May.
    3. Sebastian Siegloch & Nils Wehrhöfer & Tobias Etzel, 2022. "Spillover, Efficiency and Equity Effects of Regional Firm Subsidies," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 210, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    4. Donghyuk Kim, 2023. "Interjurisdictional Competition and Coordination: Evidence from Kansas City," NBER Chapters, in: Policy Responses to Tax Competition, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Mikhail Ivonchyk, 2022. "Local Economic Development Policies and Business Activity: Dynamic Panel Data Analysis of All County Governments in the State of Georgia," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 36(2), pages 92-107, May.
    6. Enghin Atalay & Ali Hortacsu & Mustafa Runyun & Chad Syverson & Mehmet Fatih Ulu, 2023. "Micro- and Macroeconomic Impacts of a Place-Based Industrial Policy," Working Papers 23-12, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    7. Raphael Calel & Jonathan Colmer & Antoine Dechezleprêtre & Matthieu Glachant, 2021. "Do carbon offsets offset carbon?," CEP Discussion Papers dp1808, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    8. Timothy J. Bartik, 2020. "Introduction to Special Issue: Learning More About Incentives," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 34(2), pages 95-100, May.
    9. Carbonnier, Clément & Malgouyres, Clément & Py, Loriane & Urvoy, Camille, 2022. "Who benefits from tax incentives? The heterogeneous wage incidence of a tax credit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    10. Raghunandan, Aneesh, 2024. "Government subsidies and corporate misconduct," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122855, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Ivanov, Ivan T. & Zimmermann, Tom, 2024. "The “Privatization” of municipal debt," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    12. Aycan Katitas & Sonal Pandya, 2024. "Investment incentives attract foreign direct investment: evidence from the great recession," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 200(1), pages 323-345, July.
    13. Siegloch, Sebastian & Wehrhöfer, Nils & Etzel, Tobias, 2021. "Direct, Spillover and Welfare Effects of Regional Firm Subsidies," CEPR Discussion Papers 16129, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Andreas Baur & Clemens Fuest & David Gstrein & Philipp Heil & Niklas Potrafke & Aurel Rochell, 2023. "The Impact of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on the German Economy," ifo Forschungsberichte, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 137.
    15. Dong, Qingkai & Raghunandan, Aneesh & Rajgopal, Shivaram, 2023. "When do firms deliver on the jobs they promise in return for state aid?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120058, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Mitchell, Matt & Farren, Michael & Gonzalez, Olivia & Horpedahl, Jeremy, 2019. "The Economics of a Targeted Economic Development Subsidy," Annals of Computational Economics, George Mason University, Mercatus Center, November.
    17. Timothy J. Bartik, 2020. "Targeting Jobs Toward The People Who Need Them," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(3), pages 854-857, June.
    18. Jeffrey Thompson, 2010. "Prioritizing Approaches to Economic Development in New England: Skills, Infrastructure, and Tax Incentives," Published Studies priorities_september7_per, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
    19. repec:rre:publsh:v:53:y:2023:i:2 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Robert S. Chirinko & Daniel J. Wilson, 2022. "Fiscal Policies for Job Creation and Innovation: The Experiences of US States," CESifo Working Paper Series 10158, CESifo.
    21. Tian, Binbin & Lin, Chao & Zhang, Wenwen & Feng, Chen, 2022. "Tax Incentives, On-the-job Training, and Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic development incentives; Migration; Job creation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:234:y:2024:i:c:s0165176523004779. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.