• Research Report

    Lotteries and Economic Incentives: Governments need better tools to evaluate tax breaks

    posted September 6, 2010 by Joseph Coletti
    Business incentives are like lottery tickets, providing big rewards for governments if you don’t count the costs. Iredell County modeled the financial costs and benefits of an incentive offered in 2009 and showed a positive net present value for the incentives, but neglected to factor in the opportunity cost of forgoing the next best use for the funds and the likelihood the investment would have happened without an incentive.

incentive package by Author