Description
Book SynopsisAs corporations search for new production sites, governments compete furiously using location subsidies and tax incentives to lure them. Yet underwriting big business can have its costs: reduction in economic efficiency, shifting of tax burdens, worsening of economic inequalities, or environmental degradation.
Competing for Capital is one of the first books to analyze competition for investment in order to suggest ways of controlling the effects of capital mobility. Comparing the European Union''s strict regulation of state aid to business with the virtually unregulated investment competition in the United States and Canada, Kenneth P. Thomas documents Europe''s relative success in controllingand decreasingsubsidies to business, even while they rise in the United States.
Thomas provides an extensive history of the powers granted to the EU''s governing European Commission for controlling subsidies and draws on data to show that those efforts are paying off. In re
Trade Review
Well researched ... Intriguing conclusions ... Could indeed provide interesting policy recommendations in the face of increasing capital mobility... Competing for Capital can provide original insights into the impact of international capital mobility on domestic policies and the competition for investment. American Political Science Review
Table of Contents
Preface Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations 1. Bidding for Business: An Unclosable Can of Worms? 2. The Market for Investment 3. European Union Control of State Aid 4. The Development of the State Aid Regime 5. The North American Nonregimes 6. How Much Bang for the Euro? 7. Lessons for Theory, Lessons for Policy Appendix 1. Notes on Game TheoryAppendix 2. Text of Articles 87-89 EECAppendix 3. A Portrait of State AidAppendix 4. NGOs Campaigning on Corporate Subsidies/Accountability Index
