Impact of Corporate Subsidies on Borrowing Costs of Local Governments: Evidence from Municipal Bonds

Abstract

We analyze the impact of $40 billion of corporate subsidies given by US local governments on their borrowing costs. We find that winning counties experience a 15.2 basis points (bps) increase in bond yield spread as compared to the losing counties. The increase in yields is higher (18–26 bps) when the subsidy deal is associated with a lower jobs multiplier or when the winning county has a lower debt capacity. However, a high jobs multiplier does not seem to alleviate the debt capacity constraints of local governments. Our results highlight the potential costs of corporate subsidies for local governments.