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 Minutes: Housing, urban transport, and cities versus towns at party conferences
City Minutes: Do Manchester and Birmingham city centres spread prosperity?
City Minutes: Where to find the melting pots of the new economy
City Minutes: Does wealth ‘trickle out’ from cities to nearby places?
City Talks: British Rail with Christian Wolmar
City Minutes: How should local government be funded?
City Talks: Cauldrons of the future
City Talks: What are the signs that the UK is levelling up?
City Talks: Carmageddon
City Minutes: Is the Midlands Engine firing on all cylinders?
City Talks: London and the rise of hybrid working
City Talks: How inequality is changing
Tackling regional economic inequality in the UK
City Minutes: London’s role in the UK’s productivity slowdown
City Minutes: Addressing the UK’s housebuilding crisis
City Talks: Tackling regional divides in Germany
City Talks: Lessons from the world of regional development
City Minutes Trilogy: How are our urban areas performing?
City Minutes Trilogy: The UK’s army of hidden workers
City Minutes Trilogy: A lost year of levelling up
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
City Manager Unfiltered
Potencial Americano
The ASIC Podcast
The Chris Plante Show
Red Eye Radio