Before You Click on Amazon, Here’s Why Your Choice Matters (Infographic)
Amazon is rapidly expanding its online empire, but behind the conveniences that the company offers are a lot of hidden costs. … Read More
New Analysis: Amazon Warehouses Impose Hidden Costs on Communities
Amazon is on a building spree, and many local officials are eager to bring one of its giant fulfillment centers to their own backyard. But a new analysis from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) indicates that communities are losing more than they gain in these projects. Contact: Stacy Mitchell, 207-232-3681 Co-Director, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) … Read More
5 Things Local Officials Need to Know Before Welcoming an Amazon Warehouse
Amazon fulfillment centers impose so many hidden costs on local economies that cities ought to reconsider welcoming them at all, much less greasing the way with public funds.… Read More
States Shower Big Companies with Economic Development Incentives, at Small Businesses’ Expense
Even when state economic development programs purport to be open to businesses of any size, in practice, they overwhelmingly favor large companies, according to a study released Tuesday. The study determined that 90 percent of a $3.2 billion pot of economic development incentives was awarded to large firms, a finding that casts light on one of the ways that small businesses are placed at a competitive disadvantage.… Read More
What We’re Excited About
This year, our work has had more reach than ever.… Read More
What Keeps Small Business Owners Awake at Night?
Next City, September 16, 2015 If you only pay attention to mainstream media, you might recall advocates for small business sounding like a broken record, constantly repeating the refrain of reducing regulatory burdens. But when New York City’s Small Business First initiative sought public comments last year from small businesses and the public on small business … Read More
Indie Coalition Hails New Rule Requiring Disclosure of Tax Breaks for Economic Development
American Booksellers Association, September 3, 2015 Advocates for Independent Business (AIB), a coalition of trade associations, including the American Booksellers Association, and other organizations representing locally owned, independent businesses, is cheering a new accounting rule requiring local and state governments to annually disclose the amount of tax breaks they give to corporations in the name of … Read More
Stacy Mitchell Speaks at American Antitrust Institute’s “Symposium on Entrepreneurship and Antitrust”
In these remarks, made on a panel at an American Antitrust Institute event, ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell makes the case that the national thinking on antitrust has gone awry since the 1970s, when antitrust shifted away from its longstanding goal of maintaining robust competition to focus instead on efficiency and low prices.… Read More
Procurement Can Be a Powerful Tool for Local Economies, but Takes More Than a Policy Change to Work
The decision of which firm will get the food service contract at the City Hall cafeteria doesn’t always make it into the news, but local governments spend a lot of money. In towns, counties, and states everywhere, there are roads to be paved, lawyers to be hired, and office supplies to be purchased, and the rules set up to govern those contracts—procurement policies—hold significant potential for governments to grow their local economies.… Read More