Nothing could be finer than be in Charalina.

• Position: Interview University of North carolina Greensboro geography department head John Rees - Economic Outlook - Interview

John Rees, head of the geography department at UNC Greensboro, specializes in economic development, industrial location and regional growth. A native of Wales, he earned his B.A. from the University of Wales and Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. He has taught at the University of Texas at Dallas and Syracuse University.

BNC: What is your view on escalating incentives offered to relocating companies? I'm a member of Gov. Hunt's task force on business incentives, but let me just speak as an individual. Like many economists, I have very little sympathy for incentives. But if other states play the game, can we afford not to? I think the answer is we have to join in, or we lose out. The question becomes, how far do we go?

Prior to 1980, companies would hire people to look around quietly at potential sites. The first company to change the rules was Saturn. They announced from Detroit they were going to locate somewhere and put out a request for proposals, and states and communities started bidding. Ultimately they picked a small town outside Nashville.

Over time, this has increased. The size of the package has come to a stage where I think every locality has to ask, is it worth it? Was it worth it for Alabama to go in for $350 million? I think yes, because Alabama needs that kind of investment. They need a big flag with the Mercedes emblem to show the rest of the world, because Alabama has the image of being a Third World country.

HOW "CHARALINA" RANKS Net new Population jobs '80-90 1990 Metro area Rank (thousands) Rank (millions) Greater Los Angeles 1 1,920 2 14.6 Greater New York 2 1,393 1 18.0 San Francisco/San Jose 3 851 4 6.3 Washington 4 781 7 3.9 Dallas/Fort Worth 5 641 8 3.9 Atlanta 6 636 13 2.9 Chicago 7 602 3 8.1 Charalina(*) 8 529 12 3.0 Philadelphia 9 510 5 5.9 Seattle 10 465 15 2.6 * Charlotte, Winston-Salem, High Point, Greensboro, Burlington, Raleigh-Durham SMSAs Source: John Rees, UNC Greensboro But incentives packages, one could argue, are out of proportion. They've really gotten too big, and people are promising everything. Since 1980 there's been an exponential increase. I think it's going to take somebody being burned before it stops. But until that happens, the war between the states, as it were, continues.

BNC: What kind of growth patterns are you seeing in North Carolina?

I think a lot of people could make the case that North Carolina is a tale of two cities: Charlotte and Raleigh are the dominant growth poles. I...