On 13 January, EPRC hosted a book presentation by Kenny Thomas from the University of Missouri. In 'Investment Incentives and the Global Competition for Capital' the author aims to evaluate EU state aid policy by comparing the 25 largest incentives given in the EU and the US since 1999.
He finds that, for comparable projects, US locations gave far more than their EU counterparts, despite the fact that the US locations have much higher GDP per capita than the corresponding EU locations. He also makes new estimates on the investment incentives and other subsidies to business by US state and local governments around 2005.
One depressing finding of Kenny Thomas's work is that developing countries often give bigger incentives than industrialized countries for similar projects, despite their lower wages and other costs.
He concludes with policy recommendations for countries and regions at many levels of development.