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The Employment and Fiscal Effects of Michigan's MEGA Tax Credit Program

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This paper estimates that Michigan's MEGA tax credit program to attract and retain businesses has large employment and fiscal benefits. MEGA provides discretionary tax credits to businesses, with the tax credit tied to the personal income taxes paid by employees on the new or retained jobs. We estimate the economic effects of MEGA using the Upjohn Institute's REMI model, and the research literature on how business location decisions respond to taxes. We estimate the fiscal effects of MEGA based on the research literature on how government spending and revenue respond to state personal income and population. The estimates suggest a lower bound to MEGA's effectiveness of being decisive in a little over 8 percent of the MEGA projects. Even with this modest success rate, MEGA is estimated to have fiscal benefits that offset about two-thirds of its gross fiscal costs. The net fiscal costs per job created of MEGA average less than $4,000 per job-year, which is less than the labor market benefits of job creation.

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  • Timothy J. Bartik & George Erickcek, 2010. "The Employment and Fiscal Effects of Michigan's MEGA Tax Credit Program," Upjohn Working Papers 10-164, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:upj:weupjo:10-164
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    Cited by:

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    2. 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.
    3. Wall, Howard, 2013. "Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: The Employment Effects of the Missouri Quality Jobs Program," MPRA Paper 50605, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. 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.
    5. David Neumark, 2016. "Policy levers to increase jobs and increase income from work after the Great Recession," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-38, December.
    6. David Neumark & Diego Grijalva, 2017. "The Employment Effects of State Hiring Credits," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 70(5), pages 1111-1145, October.
    7. 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).
    8. J. David Brown & John S. Earle, 2017. "Finance and Growth at the Firm Level: Evidence from SBA Loans," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(3), pages 1039-1080, June.
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    10. David Neumark & Diego Grijalva, 2013. "The Employment Effects of State Hiring Credits During and After the Great Recession," NBER Working Papers 18928, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Kenneth A. Couch & Douglas J. Besharov & David Neumark, 2013. "Spurring Job Creation in Response to Severe Recessions: Reconsidering Hiring Credits," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(1), pages 142-171, January.

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    JEL classification:

    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population
    • R28 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Government Policy
    • R30 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - General
    • R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy
    • H70 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - General

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