IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecdequ/v38y2024i3p141-163.html

Flying Blind on Job Creation Policies? A Case Study of California

Author

Listed:
  • David Neumark
  • Emma Wohl

Abstract

Are state job creation policies evidence-based? The authors present a case study of California's extensive set of job creation policies. The authors identify tax credits, grants, loans, entrepreneur training and assistance, and worker training and assistance policies, and estimate their costs. They synthesize what evidence there is on policy effectiveness. There is good evidence for a small number of state job creation policies, sometimes pointing to success in creating or retaining jobs. But for many state policies there is no evidence on effectiveness, or the evidence does not establish that the policy works.

Suggested Citation

  • David Neumark & Emma Wohl, 2024. "Flying Blind on Job Creation Policies? A Case Study of California," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 38(3), pages 141-163, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecdequ:v:38:y:2024:i:3:p:141-163
    DOI: 10.1177/08912424241254797
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08912424241254797
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/08912424241254797?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rocio Sanchez-Moyano, 2022. "Lessons Learned from Small Business Lending During COVID-19: A Case Study of the California Rebuilding Fund," Community Development Research Brief, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, vol. 2022(03), pages 1-38, May.
    2. Daniel J. Wilson, 2009. "Beggar Thy Neighbor? The In-State, Out-of-State, and Aggregate Effects of R&D Tax Credits," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(2), pages 431-436, May.
    3. Chiara Criscuolo & Ralf Martin & Henry G. Overman & John Van Reenen, 2019. "Some Causal Effects of an Industrial Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 48-85, January.
    4. Freedman, Matthew, 2012. "Teaching new markets old tricks: The effects of subsidized investment on low-income neighborhoods," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(11), pages 1000-1014.
    5. Alec Workman, 2021. "Ready for a Close-Up: The Effect of Tax Incentives on Film Production in California," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 35(2), pages 125-140, May.
    6. Matias Busso & Jesse Gregory & Patrick Kline, 2013. "Assessing the Incidence and Efficiency of a Prominent Place Based Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(2), pages 897-947, April.
    7. Richard W. Moore & Daniel R. Blake & G. Michael Phillips & Daniel McConaughy, 2003. "Training that Works: Lessons from California's Employment Training Panel Program," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number ttw.
    8. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Rosen, Harvey S & Weathers, Robert, 2000. "Horatio Alger Meets the Mobility Tables," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 243-274, June.
    9. John Haltiwanger & Ron S. Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2013. "Who Creates Jobs? Small versus Large versus Young," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 347-361, May.
    10. David Neumark & Brandon Wall & Junfu Zhang, 2011. "Do Small Businesses Create More Jobs? New Evidence for the United States from the National Establishment Time Series," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(1), pages 16-29, August.
    11. Moretti, Enrico & Wilson, Daniel J., 2014. "State incentives for innovation, star scientists and jobs: Evidence from biotech," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 20-38.
    12. Freedman, Matthew & Khanna, Shantanu & Neumark, David, 2023. "Combining rules and discretion in economic development policy: Evidence on the impacts of the California Competes Tax Credit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Freedman, Matthew & Khanna, Shantanu & Neumark, David, 2023. "Combining rules and discretion in economic development policy: Evidence on the impacts of the California Competes Tax Credit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    2. Neumark, David & Simpson, Helen, 2015. "Place-Based Policies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 1197-1287, Elsevier.
    3. Gary A. Wagner & Javier E. Portillo, 2024. "Cashing in on culture: local employment effects from art and cultural district designation," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 48(4), pages 645-684, December.
    4. Freedman, Matthew & Khanna, Shantanu & Neumark, David, 2023. "JUE Insight: The Impacts of Opportunity Zones on Zone Residents," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    5. Cailin R. Slattery & Owen M. Zidar, 2020. "Evaluating State and Local Business Tax Incentives," NBER Working Papers 26603, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Einiö, Elias & Overman, Henry G., 2020. "The effects of supporting local business: Evidence from the UK," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    7. Tessa Conroy & Steven Deller & Philip Watson, 2021. "Regional income inequality: a link to women-owned businesses," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 189-207, January.
    8. Cingano, Federico & Palomba, Filippo & Pinotti, Paolo & Rettore, Enrico, 2023. "Granting more bang for the buck: The heterogeneous effects of firm subsidies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    9. Sachiko Kazekami, 2016. "Incidence, Optimal Use and Rationale of Place-Based Job Creation Programs," SERIES 02-2016, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza - Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro", revised Mar 2016.
    10. Weinstein, Russell, 2018. "Dynamic responses to labor demand shocks: Evidence from the financial industry in Delaware," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 27-45.
    11. Sachiko Kazekami, 2017. "Evaluating place-based job creation programs in Japan," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 6(1), pages 1-27, December.
    12. Tammy Leonard & Xi Yang & Lei Zhang & Connor Reed, 2020. "Impact of Property Tax Abatement on Employment Growth," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 34(2), pages 209-221, May.
    13. Catherine Fazio & Jorge Guzman & Scott Stern, 2020. "The Impact of State-Level Research and Development Tax Credits on the Quantity and Quality of Entrepreneurship," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 34(2), pages 188-208, May.
    14. Kaitlyn Harger & Amanda Ross, 2016. "Do Capital Tax Incentives Attract New Businesses? Evidence Across Industries From The New Markets Tax Credit," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(5), pages 733-753, November.
    15. Atkins, Rachel M.B. & Hernández-Lagos, Pablo & Jara-Figueroa, Cristian & Seamans, Robert, 2023. "JUE Insight: What is the impact of opportunity zones on job postings?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    16. Cailin Slattery & Owen Zidar, 2020. "Evaluating State and Local Business Incentives," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(2), pages 90-118, Spring.
    17. Muraközy, Balázs & Telegdy, Álmos, 2023. "The effects of EU-funded enterprise grants on firms and workers," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 216-234.
    18. Amanda Ross & Kaitlyn Wolf, 2014. "Do Market-Based Tax Incentives Attract New Businesses? Evidence from the New Markets Tax Credit," ERSA conference papers ersa14p653, European Regional Science Association.
    19. Blessing Atwine & Ibrahim Mike Okumu & John Bosco Nnyanzi, 2023. "What drives the dynamics of employment growth in firms? Evidence from East Africa," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, December.
    20. Cristina Fernández & Roberta García & Paloma Lopez-Garcia & Benedicta Marzinotto & Roberta Serafini & Juuso Vanhala & Ladislav Wintr, 2017. "Firm growth in Europe: An overview based on the COMPNET labour module," BCL working papers 107, Central Bank of Luxembourg.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecdequ:v:38:y:2024:i:3:p:141-163. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.