Report: Job Growth Greater With Family Businesses

WASHINGTON, May 20 –  Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) published a new study showing state and local governments could see more job growth from adopting family business-friendly policies, rather than using lucrative incentives and other policy means to favor large corporations.

“State and local politicians often argue that governments should use tax breaks and other incentives to attract large corporations to their jurisdictions because corporations employ many people. However, while large corporations pay higher salaries on average, family businesses employ 180 percent more workers,” said Antony Davies, Associate Professor of Economics at Duquesne University and author of the report, Why Family Businesses Matter What Do They Look Like, How Many Are There, and How Much Do They Contribute to Society?.

Davies’ report further documents how government subsidies don’t necessarily generate all the jobs and revenue that are estimated by advocates. He cites data from Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Tax Foundation, respectively, showing that government subsidies did not create net jobs and revenue. The Michigan auditor general’s office, for example, found that the number of jobs at the companies had actually declined.
 
>View CEI’s report: Why Family Businesses Matter What Do They Look Like, How Many Are There, and How Much Do They Contribute to Society?