Papers presented by Alyssa Kuchinski since 2019

2025 Atlanta, Georgia

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2025 Atlanta, Georgia

"'Letting the Fox Loose among the Chickens': The Fantus Company's Conflict of Interest and Effect on Public Policy"

Abstract:

By 1977, over 300 businesses, including many national headquarters, had left New York City. Because of this mass capital flight, NYC city officials hired an expert on company relocations to advise them on their economic development policies. The city hoped this expert, the Fantus Company, would stem the steady capital migration. And why wouldn’t they? It was the Fantus Company, after all, that had advised those businesses to move out of New York City in the first place. This paper examines the duality and inherent conflict of interest among site selection consultants that worked for both government and private businesses and advised both simultaneously on their economic development policies. The Fantus Company, the oldest and largest site selection firm, consulted for both city and state offices while hired by private companies interested in moving in or out of those locations. While the company worked with public and private entities from its beginning in 1926, the practice escalated during the latter twentieth century. As evident with their presence in 1970s New York City, public officials often hired the company to “reverse” the consequences of their previous actions in relocating companies. With a focus on Fantus’s relocation of corporate headquarters from 1975 to 1996, many from New York City to other parts of the United States, this study delves into the consequences this conflict of interest had for Fantus’s public sector clients and workers. Due to accelerating capital mobility, in part fueled by Fantus, local and state governments increasingly competed to retain or attract corporations. By following the advice of Fantus and other site selection firms, governments at all levels offered greater financial incentives while reducing their taxes, wages, and regulations. These actions ultimately harmed working people while corporations profited.