Governments use economic development incentives to attract new investment and retain existing businesses. Empirical evidence for their effectiveness remains inconclusive. This research tests the effect of incentives on the number of firms, employees, and their payroll in a longitudinal study of all county governments in the state of Georgia over 16 years. It incorporates a comprehensive set of incentives offered by counties to attract and retain businesses and accounts for the frequency of their use and financing level. Empirical findings indicate that industrial development bonds are significantly associated with the number of firms in the average county. This association is stronger in rural areas and not significant in urban counties. Subsidies, on the other hand, tend to be negatively associated with the number of firms in urban counties, but not in rural counties. No incentive is significantly correlated with firm employees or payroll.

政府利用经济发展激励措施来吸引新投资并保留现有业务。其有效性的经验证据仍然没有定论。这项研究在对佐治亚州所有县政府进行了 16 年的纵向研究中，测试了激励措施对公司数量、员工数量及其工资单的影响。它包含了各县为吸引和留住企业而提供的一整套激励措施，并说明了企业的使用频率和融资水平。实证结果表明，工业发展债券与普通县的企业数量显着相关。这种关联在农村地区更强，在城市县不显着。另一方面，补贴往往与城市县的企业数量负相关，但不是在农村县。没有激励与公司员工或工资显着相关。