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Is There a Tradeoff Between Economic Development Incentives and Economic Freedom? Evidence from the US States

Author

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  • John Dove

    (Troy University)

  • Daniel Sutter

    (Troy University)

Abstract
State and local governments have used targeted incentives to recruit businesses for decades. The relationship between incentives and business formation, employment, and economic growth has been studied in detail. This paper extends this literature by examining the relationship between development incentives and economic freedom – where economic freedom refers to the ability of individuals and firms to enter into contracts and use their property as they see fit without permission from government (Gwartney, Lawson, and Hall, 2016). Optimal tax theory assumes an exogenous government revenue constraint, suggesting that taxes not collected from some businesses result in higher taxes on others, which may negatively impact economic freedom. By contrast, tax breaks could diffuse across firms and thus positively affect economic freedom. The paper investigates this relationship with state-level panel data between 1994 and 2013. We find an economically and statistically significant negative relationship between incentives and freedom, which are robust to several specifications.

Suggested Citation

  • John Dove & Daniel Sutter, 2018. "Is There a Tradeoff Between Economic Development Incentives and Economic Freedom? Evidence from the US States," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 48(1), pages 55-69, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:rre:publsh:v48:y:2018:i:1:p:55-69
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    Cited by:

    1. Adam A. Millsap & Bradley K. Hobbs & Dean Stansel, 2019. "Local Governments and Economic Freedom: A Test of the Leviathan Hypothesis," Public Finance Review, , vol. 47(3), pages 493-529, May.
    2. Mitchell, Matt, 2019. "A Culture of Favoritism: Corporate Privilege and Beliefs about Markets and Government," Annals of Computational Economics, George Mason University, Mercatus Center, March.
    3. Mitchell, Matt & Farren, Michael & Gonzalez, Olivia & Horpedahl, Jeremy, 2019. "The Economics of a Targeted Economic Development Subsidy," Annals of Computational Economics, George Mason University, Mercatus Center, November.
    4. Russell S. Sobel & Gary A. Wagner & Peter T. Calcagno, 2024. "The political economy of state economic development incentives: A case of rent extraction," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 104-151, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic development incentives; economic freedom; subsidies; tax incentives;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government
    • H71 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H81 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Governmental Loans; Loan Guarantees; Credits; Grants; Bailouts

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