A 2010 study published by the Pioneer Institute, “Playing the Lottery: The Impact of Interstate Relocation on Massachusetts Jobs,” uses the NETS database to track establishment and employment changes to and from the Bay State (and cities within Massachusetts) between 1990 and 2007.[17] The authors note that state and local units in Massachusetts tried to induce companies to move from elsewhere (or to prevent Bay State firms from leaving) but have had little success.[18]
The authors found that, on balance, Massachusetts lost 2,152 establishments and more than 24,000 related jobs during the study period.[19] Massachusetts, they found, generally lost these businesses and jobs “to lower cost and lower tax states, and gained from similarly high cost and tax states.”[20] Unlike Texas, Massachusetts suffered a net loss in both the number of firms and the number of jobs despite its efforts to influence its economic performance with incentive programs.