Incentives to Pander

Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-1-108-41890-4
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, HC gerader Rücken kaschiert, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 551 g

Reihe: Business and Public Policy

Policies targeting individual companies for economic development incentives, such as tax holidays and abatements, are generally seen as inefficient, economically costly, and distortionary. Despite this evidence, politicians still choose to use these policies to claim credit for attracting investment. Thus, while fiscal incentives are economically inefficient, they pose an effective pandering strategy for politicians. Using original surveys of voters in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as well as data on incentive use by politicians in the US, Vietnam and Russia, this book provides compelling evidence for the use of fiscal incentives for political gain and shows how such pandering appears to be associated with growing economic inequality. As national and subnational governments surrender valuable tax revenue to attract businesses in the vain hope of long-term economic growth, they are left with fiscal shortfalls that have been filled through regressive sales taxes, police fines and penalties, and cuts to public education.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jensen, Nathan M.

Malesky, Edmund

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction: the global competition for capital meets local politics; 2. A theory of the political use of investment incentives; 3. Incentives and the competition for investment within countries and around the world; 4. The economic case against investment incentives; 5. Economic or political competition? Allocation and oversight of US incentives; 6. Money for money: campaign contributions in exchange for financial incentives?; 7. Political pandering in the United States: a survey experiment on incentives and investment; 8. Pandering upward: tax incentives and credit claiming in authoritarian countries; 9. The distributional effects of investment incentives; 10. Potential policy solutions to the pandering problem; 11. Final thoughts.

Über Autor(innen)

Malesky, Edmund
Edmund Malesky is a Professor of Political Economy and the Associate Chair of the Political Science Department at Duke University, North Carolina. He is a noted specialist in economic development, authoritarian institutions, and comparative political economy in Vietnam and has published extensively in leading political science and economic journals.

Jensen, Nathan M.
Nathan M. Jensen is Professor of Government at the University of Texas, Austin. His research focusses on government economic development strategies, firm non-market strategies and business-government relations, as well as the politics of oil and natural resources, political risk in emerging markets, trade policy, and international institutions.