June 23, 2009 5:17PM # Press Release Economics in Michigan Picked Apart By [Tad DeHaven](https://www.cato.org/people/tad-dehaven) --- SHARE This morning [I blogged](https://www.cato.org/2009/06/23/states-creating-jobs-one-corndog-at-a-time/) on the wave of state governments giving away taxpayer money to businesses in the name of “creating jobs.” One of the examples I mentioned is the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), a state program that exists to generate press releases to provide cover for the state’s lamentable fiscal policies. Michael LaFaive at the [Mackinac Center for Public Policy](http://www.mackinac.org/) in Michigan was kind enough to send me a [recent report he wrote](http://www.mackinac.org/archives/2009/s2009-04a.pdf) on the folly of state subsidies to businesses. State officials like to solicit studies from local universities that just happen to conclude that such-and-such government program is creating X number of jobs. (Of course, in the rare occurrence that a study doesn’t come back with what the bureaucrats were expecting, such study will likely disappear into thin air. I’ve seen that happen first hand.) Michael’s paper deconstructs a study on the purported benefits of Michigan’s film maker subsidies, which was prepared by Michigan State University at the behest of the MEDC. A quote he cites from a 2006 study on tourism-related economic development programs nails it: > “Most economic impact studies are commissioned to legitimize a political position rather than to search for economic truth. Often the result is mischievous procedures that produce large numbers that study sponsors seek to support a predetermined position.” If you read nothing else, read the section on page 4 entitled “Why Government Subsidies Won’t Save Michigan’s Economy.” The reasons apply to all fifty states, not just Michigan. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).