Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T07:29:32.128Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Attracting Industry: How Can We Do a Better Job?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2017

Frank M. Goode
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
J. Karl Wise
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
Theodore E. Fuller
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
Get access

Extract

Many state and local groups in the Northeast are attempting to increase their employment base by attracting new industry. Unfortunately the success rate of these activities is not good. Despite the public relations hype associated with “successes,” serious evaluation of these activities raise questions regarding their efficiency. For example, the Alabama Business Research Council has documented that two-thirds of the plants that accepted industrial development bonds indicate that they would have chosen the same location even if the inducements had not been offered; thus, many “successes” were illusions. In addition, others have documented the complete failure of many types of industrial inducement programs (Cornia, Testa and Stocker; Stinson). Thus, the question is why haven't location inducement programs been more successful?

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alabama Business Research Council. 1970. Industrial Development Bond Financing: Business and Community Experiences and Opinions. University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Birch, David L. 1981. “Who Creates Jobs?” Public Interest. No. 65, 314.Google Scholar
Cornia, Gary C., Testa, William A., and Stocker, Frederick D. 1978. State-Local Fiscal Incentives and Economic Development. Columbus, Ohio: Academy for Contemporary Problems. Urban and Regional Development Series No. 4.Google Scholar
McMillan, T. E. Jr. 1965. “Why Manufacturers Choose Plant Locations Versus Determinants of Plant Locations.” Land Economics. Vol. 41, 239246.Google Scholar
Nishioka, H. and Krumme, G. 1973. “Location Conditions, Factors and Decisions: An Evaluation of Selected Location Surveys.” Land Economics. Vol. 49, No. 2, 195205.Google Scholar
Oster, Sharon. 1979. “Industrial Search for New Locations: An Empirical Analysis.” The Review of Economics and Statistics. Vol. 61 (2), 8892.Google Scholar
Rees, John. 1974. “Decision-Making, the Growth of the Firm and the Business Environment.” In Spatial Perspectives on Industrial Organization and Decision-Making, ed., Hamilton, . New York: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Chapter 7, 189211.Google Scholar
Stafford, Howard. 1974. “The Anatomy of the Location Decision: Content Analysis of Case Studies.” In Spatial Perspectives on Industrial Organization and Decision-Making, ed., Hamilton, . Chapter 6, 169187.Google Scholar
Stevens, Benjamin S. and Brackett, Carolyn A. 1967. Industrial Location: A Review and Annotated Bibliography of Theoretical, Empirical, and Case Studies. Bibliography Series 3. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Regional Science Research Institute.Google Scholar
Stinson, Thomas F. 1968. The Effects of Taxes and Public Financing Programs on Local Industrial Development: A Survey of the Literature. Washington, D.C.: U. S. Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Economic Report No. 133.Google Scholar