The Impact of Credentials, Skill Levels, Worker Training, and Motivation on Employment Outcomes: Sorting Out the Implications for Economic Development Policy

Political scientists and policy scholars have traditionally looked at the role of welfare and tax policies in shaping income inequality. Less attention has been paid to the key policy area of economic development. But states spend billions on economic development incentives each year to encourage firms to locate in their state. The few studies that have examined the impact of economic development policy on inequality have found mixed results, and have not considered who shapes and benefits from economic development policy when identifying possible causal mechanisms. I argue that increased incentive spending leads to increased inequality through either a market conditioning effect (incentives disproportionately boost the incomes of top earners prior to taxes) or a redistributive effect (incentives allow wealthy firms, investors, and employees to keep income that would otherwise be taxed and transferred). These mechanisms are tested using data on incentive spending and inequality across the 50 states from 1999 to 2014. The findings demonstrate that incentives increase income inequality via a redistributive effect only. This effect, though, is relatively large, long-lasting, and robust to different measures of incentive spending. Despite using economic development incentives to try to generate greater prosperity, state governments may be inadvertently exacerbating inequality.

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Choice Of Technique And The Volume Of Saving (A Re-Examination Of The Cobb-Douglas Model)

The Pakistan Development Review ◽

10.30541/v8i4pp.606-617 ◽

1968 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 606-617

Author(s):

Mohammad Anisur Rahman

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Production Function ◽

Development Policy ◽

Social Goals ◽

The Other ◽

Economic Development Policy ◽

Labour Intensity ◽

The One ◽

Choice Of Technique ◽

The Relationship

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the relationship between the degree of aggregate labour-intensity and the aggregate volume of saving in an economy where a Cobb-6ouglas production function in its traditional form can be assumed to give a good approximation to reality. The relationship in ques¬tion has an obviously important bearing on economic development policy in the area of choice of labour intensity. To the extent that and in the range where an increase in labour intensity would adversely affect the volume of savings, a con¬flict arises between two important social objectives, i.e., higher rate of capital formation on the one hand and greater employment and distributive equity on the other. If relative resource endowments in the economy are such that such a "competitive" range of labour-intensity falls within the nation's attainable range of choice, development planners will have to arrive at a compromise between these two social goals.

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HOW WOULD YOU KNOW A GOOD ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POLICY IF YOU TRIPPED OVER ONE? HINT: DON'T JUST COUNT JOBS

National Tax Journal ◽

10.1086/ntj41789114 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 47 (4) ◽

pp. 863-881

Author(s):

PAUL N. COURANT

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Development Policy ◽

Economic Development Policy

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Capability-market matrix analysis for economic development policy

IEMC '03 Proceedings. Managing Technologically Driven Organizations: The Human Side of Innovation and Change ◽

10.1109/iemc.2003.1252295 ◽

2004 ◽

Author(s):

S. Shariff ◽

F. Diaz ◽

A. Yassine ◽

I. Sidhu

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Development Policy ◽

Matrix Analysis ◽

Economic Development Policy

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Governors as Economic Problem Solvers

Economic Development Quarterly ◽

10.1177/0891242412453114 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 267-276 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Charles D. Taylor

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Development Policy ◽

Economic Problem ◽

Data Set ◽

Economic Development Policy ◽

Quantitative Studies ◽

New Business ◽

Scant Attention ◽

Problem Solvers ◽

Economic Development Strategies

Despite the important role governors have played in shaping states’ economic development strategies, existing quantitative studies of state economic development policymaking have paid only scant attention to the factors that influence governors’ decisions about economic development policy. This study investigates these factors using a unique data set of gubernatorial economic development proposals generated by content analyzing hundreds of major legislative addresses delivered by governors during the 12-year period from 1995 to 2006. The findings reveal that gubernatorial economic development policymaking is only partially an attempt to solve a state’s economic problems. Economic policy making by governors appears to be driven largely by a desire to compete for new business investment during periods of economic expansion.

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