Economic Development Incentive Evaluation Project

This page provides details on a series of economic development evaluations as well as some public commentary. See our video on our book project, Incentives to Pander.

Here is my op-ed at the New York Times on economic development incentives and here is a second New York Times piece on the lack of transparency of these programs. And here is one more op-ed at the Austin Statements on incentives and education.

This includes comments on NPR Marketplace, The Capital Pressroom, Innovation Hub, and a very brief appearance on the local news.

And here is a City Lab interview on my book, Incentives to Pander, with Edmund Malesky. The Upshot at the New York Times also covered this project.

Commentary and Analysis of Amazon HQ2

I am beginning to collect data on Amazon’s competition for a second headquarters (HQ2). I will be posting information on these two investments here.

My piece in the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage on Amazon. And my op-ed in USA Today on the misguided economic development secrecy in the Amazon bids. Finally a piece at the Center for Equitable Growth Blog.

I’m also collecting the formal Amazon HQ2 bids.

Albany (Capital Region), NY

Arlington, VA

Atlantic City, NJ

Austin, TX

Baltimore, MD

Billerica, Tewksbury, and Lowell Middlesex 3), MA

Birmingham, AL

Boston, MA

Brunswick, ME

Buffalo/Rochester, NY

Camden, NJ

Charlotte, NC

Charles County, MD (Redacted)

Chicago, IL

Chula Vista, CA: Incentives

Cincinnati, OH: Incentive Proposal

Cleveland, OH (Redacted)

Columbus, OH

Connecticut (Hartford and Stamford)

Dallas, TX: Arlington, Fort Worth (letter on incentives)

Delaware

Denver, CO

Des Moines, IA

Fresno, CA

Gary, IN

Green Bay, WI

Halifax, CA

Houston, TX:

Irvine, CA:

Jersey City, NJ:

Kansas City, MO

Knoxville, TN

Las Vegas:

Long Beach, CA

Los Angeles

Louisiana

Louisville, KY (4 parts): Intro, Real Estate and Transport, TalentQuality of Life

Madison, WI

Memphis, TN

Milwaukee, WI

Minneapolis, MN

Montreal, CA

Nashville, TN (letter to Amazon)

Newark, NJ Part 1Part 2Part 3

New York City, NY

Oklahoma City, OK

Orlando:

Phoenix Local Level Incentives (Redacted)

Pittsburgh, PA

Portland (Redacted)

Research Triangle, NC

Richmond, VA

San Francisco

Spartanburg/Greenville, SC

St. Louis Metro:

Tacoma, WA

Toledo, OH

Toronto, CA

Tulsa, OK

Vancouver, CA (Redacted)

Washington DC

Winnipeg

Worchester, MA

The Effectiveness of the Texas Chapter 313 Program

The Texas Chapter 313 program targets capital intensive investments for tax relief through a property tax limitation.

I have produced a two page summary, a Policy Brief as well as a research paper this program. This paper is published at Public Choice and an ungated (free) version of the paper can be found here.

The raw data for all of the 313 applications has been archived on the Open Science Framework.

An additional data set coding the costs of the program as well as additional coding from these applications here (data and codebook both in Excel).

I have written a number of op-eds based on this project.

Coverage of this study on Texas economic development in the Texas Observer (1), Texas Observer (2), Houston Business Journal, Houston Chronicle, Odessa American,

You can find a copy of the Texas Oversight Board’s evaluation of incentives here:

Texas Incentive Oversight Board Legislative Report 2019

Job Creation and the Promoting Employment Across Kansas (PEAK) Program.

This research has been published in the Journal of Public Policy.

Additional Evaluations

My latest evaluations were pre-registered. Thus my methods were pre-specified before I had access to the data.

This evaluation of Maryland and Virginia’s flagship economic development programs has been published at Research & Politics.

The Political Economy of Economic Development Incentives

I have produced a number of co-authored pieces on the politics of incentives including our book project, Incentives to Pander: How Politicians use Corporate Welfare for Political Gain.  This includes research on how politicians use incentives to claim credit for investment in their district (gated, here). This leads elected politicians to offer bigger incentives with less oversight (gated, here).

Reports and Information on Foxconn Incentives

For details on North Carolina’s losing bid for Foxconn, see this Proposal from a public records request.

A letter from North Carolina’s two U.S. Senators highlights their committee memberships and ability to help secure federal benefits for Foxconn.

Film Incentives Data

Data on Illinois Film Credit Transfers

Media Commentary On Incentives

September 2017 KJZZ Phoenix radio interview on Amazon’s search for HQ2 and Texas Monthly on secrecy around Amazon.

Other media quotes on incentives at US News and World Report, Fox Business, CNN Money, Next City (1), Next City (2), Think Progress, Hartford Courant,  International Business Times (1), International Business Times (2), CBS News, Dallas News, Axois, Christian Science Monitor, New York Daily News, the Providence Journal, Phoenix Business Journal, Triangle Business Journal, Washington Business Journal, Minneapolis Star Tribune, CNN Money, Politico, CNN Money(2), Dallas Observer, Washington Post, CNN Money, Texas Tribune, Wall Street Journal,  Dallas Morning News, CNN Money, WRAL (North Carolina), Governing, National Review, Wired, CNN Money, Seattle Times, San Antonio Express-News, Eugene Weekly, The New Republic