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Friday, December 16, 2011

Good story at Atlantic Cities on Job Piracy

Julie Irwin Zimmerman has a story at Atlantic Cities on job piracy, "The Folly or Corporate Relocation Incentives." She tells the story of Sears and other job blackmailers in Illinois in detail and quotes me on the failure of previous no-raiding agreements by states in the past. She points out that there are multiple reasons for opposing these subsidies, an equity argument that attracts liberals and an efficiency argument that brings conservatives and libertarians to the issue of investment subsidies.

Zimmerman does a great job; go read it.

FYI, when she quotes me as saying the cost of location incentives is almost $50 billion a year, that's correct. My other frequently quoted estimate of $70 billion annually includes all subsidies to business, including those which do not require an investment to receive them. Many sales tax subsidies don't require an investment, for example.

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