Do Incentives Programs Cause Growth? The Case of The Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program and Community-level Economic Growth

This paper adds to the recent literature on state-level incentive programs by evaluating the Quality Jobs Program in Oklahoma, which provides cash payments to businesses relocating to or expanding in the state. 70 communities across the state had a business that received QJ funding between 1994 and 2004, and we use multivariate regressions and matching techniques to compare their growth rates between 1990 and the 2005-09 ACS. The results provide no evidence that the QJ program contributed to growth among Oklahoma communities, but do provide limited evidence that, in comparison to otherwise similar Kansas communities, the program may have resulted in higher levels of income growth.