The authors analyze the locations of property tax abatements awarded to businesses in Cook County, Illinois from 2012 to 2014 to explore their spatial distribution and to examine local government motivations for awarding incentives. The authors’ analysis, which controls for the spatial distribution of businesses, reveals a clustering of abatements at intramunicipal geographic scales. They also find amplified probabilities that abatements are awarded to businesses located near tax increment financing districts or enterprise zones. These patterns suggest that local governments use abatements in a strategic fashion to advance policy goals. The authors use the same data to develop three indices of the degree of abatement clustering at the municipal scale for each of the 64 municipalities in Cook County that awarded five or more abatements. Most of the Chicago suburbs exhibit a pattern consistent with the strategic award of business tax incentives.

作者分析了2012年至2014年授予伊利诺伊州库克县企业的财产税减免地点，以探讨其空间分布并研究地方政府奖励措施的动机。作者的分析控制着企业的空间分布，揭示了城市内地理尺度上的减排集群。他们还发现，将增税的可能性扩大到了增税融资区或企业区附近的企业。这些模式表明，地方政府以战略方式利用减排来推进政策目标。作者使用相同的数据为库克县获得了五次或更多减排量的64个市镇中的每个市镇制定了减排量聚类程度的三个指数。