Sup, all. Robert here. Seventh dev update.
This one is about the economy, and it starts with a design principle that might sound counterintuitive: you don't build an economy. You build and manage everything else, and then the economy is what emerges.
There is no economy slider. No GDP dial you turn. No "boost economy" button. The economy in NationBuilder is the result of every other decision you've made and your government’s posture: what your nation builds, where it builds, who it taxes, how much it invests, who it lets in, what it produces, and whether your nation creates a place where people have reasons to stay. If those things are working, the economy works. If they're not, no amount of economic policy can save it.
That's the philosophy. Let me walk through how it actually works.
Where the money comes from
Your nation has a treasury. Every turn, money flows in from a few sources:
Corporate tax is revenue from the private sector. The private sector grows organically in each settlement based on your governance policies, infrastructure, workforce, and whether you've created conditions worth investing in. You set the corporate tax rate. Higher rates mean more government revenue per turn. Lower rates mean the private sector grows faster, creates more jobs, and generates more tax revenue over time. The tension between short-term extraction and long-term growth is the entire game in miniature.
Income tax works the same way, but on your workforce. Every employed worker generates income tax revenue at whatever rate you've set. More jobs, more workers, more revenue. But set income tax too high, and you affect mood, which in turn affects productivity, which in turn affects everything downstream.
Industry revenue comes from government-owned industries. When you build an industry with government money (the government-built model from Dev Update #4), you own it outright and keep the income. It's reliable revenue, but it costs you upfront and signals nationalization, which might not go over well with your people, other nations, or factions.
Beyond those, you collect road tolls from your road network, building provisions from tourism and public events, and eventually trade contract revenue once you're connected to the world economy. We'll cover trade in its own post.
Where the money goes
Expenses are per turn, and they scale with your nation.
Building maintenance is the big one. Every public building you've constructed costs money to maintain every turn. A health clinic, a school, a power grid, and a government office all have upkeep. More settlements with more buildings mean higher maintenance costs. This is why growth without revenue is a death spiral: you build the buildings your people need, but if your economy can't sustain them, you're bleeding money every turn.
Government salaries pay for the workers in your public institutions. Infrastructure upkeep keeps your roads and rail operational. Industry maintenance keeps your government-owned industries running. The private sector has its own overhead, which it handles without your input, but your policies determine whether that overhead is sustainable or crushing.
Every turn, revenue minus expenses equals your surplus or deficit. Surplus goes into the treasury. Deficit comes out of it. When the treasury hits zero, you're in crisis territory and have to think about debt, or that’s it.
The budget and funding
The governance panel (from Dev Update #2) is where you allocate government spending. National funding sliders let you distribute your budget across categories: healthcare, education, defense, infrastructure, law enforcement, social welfare, culture, and counter-intelligence.
Here's the thing: that budget doesn't just disappear into an abstract effectiveness score. It is distributed equally across all settlements with the relevant infrastructure. If your education slider is set to 20% of the budget and you have three settlements with schools, each school gets roughly 6.7% of your budget. Add a fourth settlement with a school, and each school's share drops to 5%. Same budget, thinner spread.
This means growth creates funding pressure. Every new settlement you build needs public buildings, and every public building dilutes the funding pool unless you increase overall spending or let the private sector take over or supplement. A player who expands aggressively without raising revenue will see service quality decline across all settlements simultaneously. Your people will notice. Their mood drops. Skilled workers start leaving. The spiral begins.
Three ways to build an industry
In Dev Update #4, I introduced the three ownership models for placing an industry. They matter to the economy because each one creates a fundamentally different revenue flow.
Government-built
Government-built means you fund it, you own it, and you keep the income. The upside is direct revenue every turn. The downside is that it costs real treasury upfront, you pay maintenance, and government-run industries are less efficient. This is the planned-economy model.
Private Sector
The private sector means your citizens build and own it. You don't pay anything up front. The industry grows organically based on conditions in the settlement, workforce availability, infrastructure quality, and your policies. You collect corporate tax on the revenue. The upside is zero upfront cost, and the private sector handles its own operations. The downside is less direct control, and the revenue depends on your tax rate and the business environment you've created.
Foreign Bid
A foreign bid is when generated companies from real nations offer to build in your country. They bring capital, expertise, technology, and expectations. A foreign mining company might offer to build a $50M operation that you couldn't afford yourself, but they'll want favorable terms, low taxes, and they'll send profits home. The upside is access to capital and expertise you don't have. The downside is dependency, profit extraction, and the political consequences of foreign corporations operating on your soil. Your factions will have opinions about this.
Each model creates a different economic texture. A nation running mostly government-run industries feels different from one with a thriving private sector, which in turn feels different from one funded by foreign investment. Most real economies are a mix. The player decides the mix.
The private sector grows on its own
This is the part that surprises people. The private sector in NationBuilder isn't something you build. It emerges.
Each settlement has a private-sector panel featuring organic businesses formed under specific conditions: small retail shops, food stalls, workshops, and services. These aren't placed by the player. They appear because the conditions are right: enough population, enough infrastructure, enough demand, and policies that don't crush small businesses.
The private sector creates jobs, generates tax revenue, and grows the local economy without you spending a dollar. But it's fragile. High corporate taxes suppress it. Poor infrastructure limits it. Corruption erodes it. A settlement with a power grid, good roads, and reasonable taxes will naturally foster a private sector. A settlement without those things won't.
This is what I mean by "the economy is what emerges." You don't click a button that says "grow private sector." You build a power grid, connect a road, set a reasonable tax rate, fund education to produce skilled workers, and then the private sector appears because you created the conditions for it. Or it doesn't appear, because you didn't, but you can also help determine its growth via governance sliders.
*We also have another feature, written up and set for after playtest one, called Companies and Corporations, that will allow for deeper private-sector and foreign-company behavior, including NPC CEOs with a trait system, market-share dynamics, agendas, and unique events that mirror real life. What does one do when one has to deal with an American billionaire trying to build in one’s country or a local corporation gaining influence and market share over one's emerging sector? We may do a dev update about it.
Wages and benchmarks
Your nation has an average wage. Your region has a benchmark wage. The gap between them tells you where you stand.
If your average wage is below the regional benchmark, skilled workers are more likely to emigrate to your neighbors. Professionals won't immigrate to a nation that pays below the regional average. Your population stagnates or declines, which shrinks your tax base, which reduces revenue, which makes it harder to invest in the things that would raise wages. This is the developing-nation trap, and it's real in the game because the population system from Dev Update #3 is tracking mood, aspiration, and emigration reasons at the group level.
If your average wage is above the benchmark, you attract talent. Professionals relocate because your economy signals opportunity. Your tax base grows. Revenue grows. Investment grows. This is the virtuous cycle, and breaking into it is one of the most satisfying arcs in the game.
Everything connects
The economy isn't a standalone system. It's the crossroads of every other system we've talked about.
Governance sets the policy environment: tax rates, funding allocation, trade openness, and immigration. Infrastructure creates the physical foundation: roads, power, buildings, and trade capacity. The population system provides the workforce and the demand. The development tiers determine what you can access and how the world treats you. And trade, which we'll cover next week, is how your economy connects to the 162 nations around you.
Get those right, and the economy takes care of itself. Get them wrong, and no amount of direct intervention will fix it. You don't build an economy. You build and manage everything else, and then the economy is what emerges.
If you have questions about how any of this works, or if something sounds overcomplicated or underdeveloped, drop a comment. Oh, we will publish a public roadmap soon so you can see what’s planned.
— Robert, Circa Games
