FROM a London School of Economics and Political Science paper by Soledad Artiz Prillaman and Kenneth J Meier (my emphasis): Studying the 50 U.S. states over the past four decades, we find that tax incentives to businesses prove unhelpful in stimulating economic growth and may even be harmful to state economies. Over the past 30 […]
IT’S campaign season, and of course, there’s a three-way race for the Blaine House. As noted by the AP in early September, and as indicated by the debates, ads, and so forth, the state’s economy is a focus of the race. While each candidate rolls out their policies and makes their pitch on how they […]
FROM a recent Bloomberg article on the issue of infrastructure spending: Last week, Larry Summers repeated his plea for the U.S. to invest more in its crumbling infrastructure. He—and the latest World Economic Outlook (PDF) from the International Monetary Fund—are imploring governments to issue additional debt to finance roads, bridges, water treatment, and extension of power grids. Even the […]
TO follow up two previous posts regarding job growth and educational attainment. Succinctly, increasing the educational attainment of a workforce alone will not boost job growth unless there is adequate demand for labor is there. To reinforce that, the following is the abstract from a 2011 paper authored by Jaison Abel and Richard Deitz (my emphasis): […]
THERE’S been some discussion in Maine about the need to increase educational attainment of the state’s workforce to boost job growth. While such discussions garner support, and the notion that Maine’s job growth would accelerate with a more educated workforce, there are some questions about the efficacy of education as an engine for economic growth. […]
FROM an op-ed titled A promise to grow jobs, shrink government that no Maine politician is making, authored by Allison Mitchell and published in this morning’s BDN: In just a month, America votes. Here in Maine, I’ll be looking for candidates smart and bold enough to call for investment in Maine’s future. As a parent, […]
AS reported by the LA Times, a four state bidding war for Tesla’s battery plant was finally settled earlier this month, with Nevada ‘winning’ the bid. In exchange for the electric car maker’s roughly 6,500 jobs, Nevada’s bid included: Tesla will get more than $1.25 billion in tax breaks and other incentives. That includes up […]
THE Bureau of Economic Analysis released the GDP figures for the nation’s metro areas for 2013 this morning: Real GDP increased in 292 of the nation’s 381 metropolitan areas in 2013, led by widespread growth in finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing, nondurable-goods manufacturing, and professional and business services . . . real GDP […]
From the PPH (for the BDN piece): Portland is losing ground at an “alarming” rate, according to a new study examining nearly 30 indicators of where the city’s economy is headed. Portland’s Economic Scorecard 2014-2015, to be released Tuesday by the Portland Community Chamber, shows that the city has experienced lackluster improvement – or no […]
FROM the Philadelphia Fed: The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has released the leading indexes for the 50 states for July 2014. The indexes are a six-month forecast of the state coincident indexes (also released by the Bank). Forty-five state coincident indexes are projected to grow over the next six months, while five are projected […]
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