Discussion Paper

Boeing South Carolina's Economic Impact: Ten Years After Opening

Abstract: There is a long history of U.S. state and local governments using subsidies to attract employers and stimulate economic activity, but research suggests that these industrial recruitment policies can have high costs per job generated. In a recent research article published in Economic Development Quarterly, I evaluate the economic impact of South Carolina's $1 billion deal to recruit Boeing's 787 Dreamliner assembly plant to North Charleston, which opened in 2011. The research investigates how the Boeing plant impacted South Carolina's burgeoning aerospace industry, the Charleston Metropolitan Area's labor market, and the deal's overall cost effectiveness. I find that the Boeing plant had a substantial impact on the state's aerospace sector in the ensuing decade resulting in employment, wage, and establishment growth within the industry. My results suggest that the state's aerospace industry gained 6,000 jobs after the plant opening, exceeding Boeing's 3,800 promised jobs and achieved good value for South Carolina taxpayers compared to other contemporary aerospace industrial recruitment deals. Furthermore, my local multiplier analysis indicates that each promised job generated 2.6 other jobs within the Charleston Metro Area in the five years after the plant opened.

Keywords: Boeing; South Carolina; labor market; economic impact;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Part of Series: Regional Matters

Publication Date: 2024-09-12