"A lot of research has been done as you might expect, and there are, I think, some fairly definitive conclusions," says Walden, an economist with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.

"At the top of the list is available labor. A business is attracted to a region if there is labor they can hire and that labor is well-trained.

"And this does not necessarily mean cheap labor: Businesses are willing to pay more for labor if that labor is correspondingly more productive.

"Also, businesses need power: They need electricity. They need natural gas. They need utilities like water, sewer. They need transportation, so things like interstates and airports are important," he adds.

"And then on the tax front, certainly businesses would not like to pay as many taxes as somewhere else but they don't necessarily want low taxes.

"If a business can see that the taxes are going to things that they like -- education, public safety, transportation -- then actually a higher tax base, but funding these necessary services, may actually be better at attracting business."