The Tiff Over TIF: A Review of the Literature Examining the Effectiveness of the Tax Increment Financing

California's recent decision to discontinue tax increment financing (TIF) after six decades of use has triggered a re-examination of its broader use. TIF typically allows the borrowing of funds for local economic development in a specified district, to be paid for by taxes collected in the future that are generated by the development. To put the findings of the previous literature into context and to make them more broadly informative, this paper reviews the empirical research, provides some descriptive national analysis of TIF adoption, and provides policy recommendations informed by the empirical findings and literature.