Some thoughtful insights on incentives for business by RIDC President Donald Smith. His article was published by the Pittsburgh Business Times.

“As the competition for Amazon has gotten more serious, some critics have taken aim at the incentives being offered by regions to attract this marquis company and the 50,000 jobs and potentially billions of dollars in benefits it represents.

I don’t have any first-hand knowledge of what our region is offering, but there’s a larger point, which is that this discussion takes place among economic development officials and policymakers on a regular basis, and not only in connection with Amazon. What would it be worth, for example, to attract a company to the Pittsburgh region that planned to create 5,000 jobs – or 1,000? When does an incentive persuade a company to locate somewhere where they otherwise would not have? How can we be sure an incentive is proportionate to the benefit the company provides to the region?”

To read the article in full: Viewpoint: Incentives make sense when this happens.