Is There a Tradeoff between Economic Development Incentives and Economic Freedom?

30 Pages Posted: 27 Apr 2018

See all articles by John A. Dove

John A. Dove

Troy University -- Department of Economics, Finance, & RMI

Daniel Sutter

Troy University - Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy

Date Written: December 6, 2017

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. Optimal tax theory assumes an exogenous government revenue constraint, suggesting that not collecting taxes from some businesses results 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 is robust to several specifications.

Keywords: economic development incentives, economic freedom, subsidies, tax incentives

JEL Classification: H11, H71, H81

Suggested Citation

Dove, John A. and Sutter, Daniel, Is There a Tradeoff between Economic Development Incentives and Economic Freedom? (December 6, 2017). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3169600 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3169600

John A. Dove (Contact Author)

Troy University -- Department of Economics, Finance, & RMI ( email )

137I John Robert Lewis Hall
Troy, AL 36082
United States

Daniel Sutter

Troy University - Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy ( email )

Bibb Graves Hall
Troy, AL 36082
United States

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