When Rent Seeking Smacks You in the Face: TIF and Motivated Reasoning

This article is a substitute for the Fellows Address that I did not get to present at the 2020 Southern Regional Science Association (SRSA) Conference due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Regional science research typically addresses real world problems in hopes of guiding better policy decisions. Why is it, then, that economic development plans often fail to reflect best practices? What do you do when you find that your own community is about to buy into a terrible plan? In this address, I share my observations and experience with a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) development plan implemented in Norman, OK. I point out how motivated reasoning leads policy makers to seek reasons to approve a plan rather than to evaluate if a plan is good. To make a meaningful impact on public policy decisions, scholars will need to step out of their comfort zones and engage in - sometimes contentious - community outreach education.