Inequality in Metropolitan Industrial Revenue Bond Programs

Industrial revenue bonds (IRBs) have become an increasingly popular, though expensive and controversial, tool of economic development at the state and local levels. That controversy has focused on the economic impact of IRBs: Whether or not they meet the intended goals of creating jobs and stabilizing the tax base of local communities, and whether the benefits are worth the costs. Though IRBs are often justified, at least in part, as a particularly useful program for older, urban, minority communities, little research has been done on the participation of racial minorities and women in IRB programs. This article examines Chicago's IRB program and finds that minorities have not participated equitably. Racial minorities and women are underutilized in many firms receiving this form of publicly subsidized financial assistance, and minority-owned businesses receive a disproportionately small share of the loans. Policy recommendations are offered to assure equitable participation of racial minorities and women in IRB programs

Bond · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Inequality · Metropolitan area · Political science · Public economics · Revenue · State (computer science · Subsidized housing · Subsidy · Finance · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Law · Public Administration · Taxation and Compliance Studies

• Buying Bonds for Business

  Open Access•Thomas A Pascarella, Richard Raymond et al.•Urban Affairs Quarterly•1982

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• American States and the Industrial Policy Debate

  Open Access•Mel Dubnlck•Review of Policy Research•1984

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