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: Giles Wilkes on designing a successful industrial strategy
City Minutes: Outlook 2021 — Covid and levelling up
City Talks: Tony Travers on the Mayor of London
City Talks: Pat Ritchie on the biggest challenges for Newcastle
City Minutes: How has the pandemic affected air quality in cities?
City Talks: Ben Wilson on the history of cities - humankind's greatest invention
City Minutes: How important is getting an EU trade deal to Britain’s cities?
City Minutes: Reforming business rates
City Talks: Sir John Armitt on the future of UK infrastructure
City Talks: Politicians on levelling up during the Covid-19 pandemic
City Minutes: Re-writing the Green Book for levelling up
City Minutes: Levelling up local government in England
City Minutes: The impact of Eat Out to Help Out on cities
City Talks: Debbie Weekes-Bernard on race, ethnicity and devolved policy making
Dafni Papoutsaki on the links between internal migration and social mobility
City Minutes: Where in the UK is it hardest to find a job?
City Talks: How are cities across the globe responding to Covid-19?
City Minutes: How a flexible zoning system would end the UK housing crisis
Professor Francesca Gains on gender, representation and devolution
City Minutes: Why the economic impact of Coronavirus will be felt differently across the UK
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
City Manager Unfiltered
Potencial Americano
The ASIC Podcast
The Chris Plante Show
Red Eye Radio