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Does It Make Sense For Cities To Offer Tax Incentives To Draw Large Businesses?

With Amazon announcing it’s looking for an HQ2 in addition to its home in Seattle, the battle is on to attract the retail giant. And there’s no doubt in analysts’ minds that tax incentives and other breaks will be offered by cities
and states.

But does it make sense for communities to do that? Do they ultimately gain the benefits they were hoping for in drawing a business with a large footprint?

We talked about that with Nathan Jensen, Professor of Government at the University of Texas-Austin. He also has a blog, the Economic Development Incentive Evaluation Project.

Steve Goldstein was a host at KJZZ from 1997 to 2022.