Do tax incentives affect business location and economic development? Evidence from state film incentives

Abstract

for excellent research assistance. I am especially thankful to the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation for generous funding through a dissertation fellowship, and to the National Institutes of Health and the RAND Corporation for funding under a postdoctoral training grant (5T32AG000244-23). The views expressed in this paper are my own and are not necessarily those of any funders. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Creating and maintaining film clusters: Synthetic control method analysis of the enactment and repeal of US state film incentives

“…Some studies use multiple measures, while others rely on a single measure. A few studies directly examine the number of films or television series that were produced in a state in response to incentives (Button, 2019(Button, , 2021Owens & Rennhoff, 2020). Because of the potential non-residency of workers in the film and television industry and purchases of materials from out of the state, most studies advocate using government measures of employment, wages, or output in the state economy.…”

“…Commonly used labour market measures include employment and wages and salaries for the aggregate Motion Picture and Video Industries sector (NAICS 5121) or parts of the sector, primarily Motion Picture and Video Production (NAICS 51211) (Adkisson, 2013;Bradbury, 2020;Button, 2019Button, , 2021O'Brien & Lane, 2018;Swenson, 2017;Thom, 2019). 5 The NAICS 5121 sector is defined as activities "primarily engaged in producing, or producing and distributing motion pictures, videos, television programmes, or television commercials" (North American Industrial Classification System, 2017, p. 415).…”

“…Because of the increasingly decentralized fiscal system in the US (Baicker et al, 2012) and historical use of state and local taxes to promote economic development (Yu & Rickman, 2013), and the widespread use of state film incentives, the empirical studies at the regional level have focused on US states. 4 The studies range from those examining all states over time in pooled samples (e.g., Bradbury, 2020;Button, 2019;Owens & 2 The states never having film incentives are Delaware, Idaho, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and South Dakota.…”

The effect of film production studios on housing prices in Atlanta, the Hollywood of the South

“…Much of the analysis of film industry clusters' impact in the US has focused on tax incentives. Studies such as Button (2019) and Swenson (2017) find little increase in direct employment in the film industry or in the number of establishments. More specifically, Thom (2018) determines that Georgia's incentive expenditures have resulted in negligible employment gains in motion picture industry employment.…”

Multi-Criteria Analysis for Business Location Decisions

“…These decisions are considered of strategic importance and fundamental to businesses' success [1]. Many factors are traditionally weighed before making location decisions, such as agglomeration economies, workforces' level of education, population density, energy costs, local economic conditions, or raw material supplies [2,3].…”