location incentives:

Incentives is a category of economic development data; i.e. a location data element. As such, it is typically a header for a section of information in, for example, a community profile.

Incentives are motivational offers for prospects. Sometime incentive offers are presented along with tax information (taxes & incentives). A marketing consultant reports that incentive offers, along with information about demographics and available real estate, are ... the most useful features of an economic development organization's website.

Working at economic development with area and local development representatives arranging for incentives in concert with politicians has its detractors; nevertheless, savvy enterprise developers and site selectors diligently search for information about them as well as approach places of interest to negotiate for them. Incentives promotion is at the heart competition between locations.

Publications dedicated to site selection and economic development regularly report on the incentives competition. Following are links to examples. The niche publications referred to are listed on page 4 of About Enterprise Development with the Google/.network search engine available so that you can search them individually for information about incentives. You can, however, use the search engine at the top of this page. Suggestion: Copy and paste the following italicized text line, keeping the quotation marks intact and substituting the identity of a place of interest for the word location: "economic development" location incentives.

Tax Incentives Make Sustainability More RewardingArea Development

Incentives: The Proper PerspectiveBusiness Facilities

Retention Incentives: Cashing In On A Growing TrendBusiness Xpansion Journal

Industrial Space Users Gaining Competitive Edge in FTZsDevelopment Magazine

Incentives Deal of the Month (archive)Site Selection Magazine

See incentives listed on the pull-down menu in About Area Development (page 7 of About Economic Development). The menu shows categories of information listed as links at a website of a place seeking economic development. It's an example of the way location data suppliers help prospects find information. A collection of the various information categories of interest to users of The Network as they search online for location data. Also, an example of location data points once used by an economic development information broker is available.

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Location incentives as enterprise development tax dodging:

Business Week says of The Great American Jobs ScamCorporate Tax Dodging and the Myth of Job Creation by Greg LeRoy that it is a collection evidence ... of tax dodging in the U.S. Most disturbing is evidence that states and cities are usually paying companies to do whatever they would have done anyway. (source of quote). Chapter 3 of LeRoy's book hearkens back to the days when the site selection was just getting started as process that goes hand in hand with economic development. The chapter is titled Fantus and the Rise of the Economic War Among the States (see the answer to the question of who the original site selection consultant was).

The University of Minnesota publishes a resource paper, The Failures of Economic
Development Incentives by Alan Peters and Peter Fisher. In their commentary on the subject Peters and Fisher ask: Does Economic Development Induce Jobs or Investment? Access the paper to read their answer. Page 2 of About Economic Development is a compendium of answers to the question of what economic development is. The collection contains one definition stating that it is about ... jobs, income, and community prosperity. Another definition of economic development in the collection states that it is ... (is increasing the flow) of capital through the community and reducing its leakage. In other words economic development is increasing the flow of capital through a location and keeping it there as investment.

Find more information online about economic development incentives in general, including their downside, use the text line suggested above without substituting the identity of a place of interest for the word location. In other words copy and paste as is to the search engine.

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Before you go to the pull-down menu on the About Area Development page, note that at the actual website where the incentive link was found breaks access to information into ...

local incentivesavailable through local development representatives

area incentivesavailable through provincial, state or similar government agencies

top 10 reasonsa promotional category listing completive advantages

Promoting any number of reasons why a prospect should choose a location is a responsibility of economic developers by definition. See the answer to following question as it was provided by the American Economic Development Council through Economic Development Tomorrow.

The question: What does an economic development practitioner do? (answer)

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