The Failures of Economic Development Incentives

Amidst the continuing controversy over American economic development incentives, this article looks at three key effectiveness issues: Do economic development incentives encourage new investment and employment? Are these incentives targeted at economically depressed areas or economically depressed people? How costly are these incentives? For all these questions, our findings come out against traditional economic development incentives. We suggest that there is a need for a radical transformation of economic development policy in the U.S.