Policies on the move: The transatlantic travels of Tax Increment Financing

Growing influence of the “new mobilities paradigm” among human geographers has combined with a long and rich disciplinary tradition of studying the movement of things and people. Yet how policy ideas and knowledge are mobilized remains a notably under-developed area of inquiry. In this paper, we discuss the mobilization of policy ideas and policy models as a particularly powerful type of mobile knowledge. The paper examines the burgeoning academic work on policy mobilities and points towards a growing policy mobilities approach in the literature, noting the multidisciplinary conversations behind the approach as well as the key commitments of many of its advocates. This approach is illustrated using the travels of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) with the role of learning and market-making within efforts to spread TIF to more cities highlighted. In conclusion, we discuss some of the political and practical limits that often confront efforts to mobilize policy ideas.