If You Promise to Build It, Will They Come? The Interaction between Local Economic Development Policy and the Real Estate Market: Evidence from Tax Increment Finance Districts
October 31, 2025Financing Progressive Development
October 31, 2025Research Article
Improving Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for Economic Development
By Merriman, D.
Full Citation
Merriman, D. (2018). Improving tax increment financing (TIF) for economic development. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Key Findings
This report explains how tax increment financing (TIF) districts work, illustrates TIF use with case studies from around the country, discusses the rationales for using TIF, describes TIF’s potential benefits and pitfalls, and reviews a large body of academic work that evaluates TIF’s effects on economic development. The author also examines additional academic literature about the impact of TIF on school districts and other potential unintended side effects. The report offers recommendations to make TIF districts more successful, equitable, and efficient.