Financial incentives are often used by policymakers to attract big businesses to locate in a place and deliver jobs and growth.
But do they actually make any difference?
Economic development and incentives expert Tim Bartik joins Andrew Carter to debunk the biggest assumptions made by policymakers in this field, revealing that 75% of the time, the same number of jobs would have been created without any incentives at all.
Tim and Andrew cover recent high-profile cases such as Amazon’s much-criticised plans for the location of its second headquarters in Virginia and New York City and Wisconsin’s $4 billion state and local tax incentives to Foxxconn in the promise of 13,000 new jobs that never materialised.
Tim reveals the opportunity costs, spillovers and leakages that offering a high cash-per-job price tag create, and instead sets out a better way to achieve inclusive local economic growth and good jobs for all.
Background reading:
City Talks: Robin Hambleton on leading an inclusive city
City Horizons: Tristram Hunt MP on the Urban Century
City Talks: The Politics of Cities ahead of the Local Elections
City Talks: cities vs regions
City Talks: What is the Northern Powerhouse?
City Talks: Tony Travers on the history of London's boroughs
City Talks: Simon Parker on shifting power to cities and local areas
City Talks: the open data revolution?
City Talks: Is urban inequality inevitable?
City Horizons: what does the future hold for China’s cities?
City Talks: is city success dependent on immigration?
City Talks: the future of urban jobs
City Talks: trains, planes and economic growth?
City Talks: Housing - crisis or continuity?
City talks: can we rebalance the economy?
Professor Edward Glaeser on 'comeback cities'
The state of our smart cities
City Talks: can cities help balance the nation's books?
What do the General Election manifestos hold in store for cities?
City Talks: Mayors – for and against
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