WASHINGTON — Likely presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants to use the promise of huge tax breaks to entice large corporations to move their overseas profits back to the United States, in hopes they would create a wealth of new jobs for US workers.

The payoff would be significant and almost immediate, generating “hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of good, permanent, private sector jobs,’’ Romney told Republicans in Bartlett, N.H., last weekend. “We want that money that’s [invested overseas] to come here — to invest in new factories, and new jobs, new equipment.’’

Some economists, however, strongly questioned such predictions, pointing to the limited impact of a similar effort, in 2004. That break — made only for one year — brought more than $300 billion back to the United States, but sev eral studies indicate it did not deliver on promises to boost jobs.

“A cash infusion into the economy is not a bad thing,’’ said Kristin Forbes, an MIT Sloan School of Management professor who cowrote a widely cited study examining the results of the break. “But it didn’t accomplish the stated goals of bringing jobs and investment to the US.’’

Forbes was a member of President George W. Bush’s council of economic advisers when Congress approved the tax break as part of broader legislation. Bush signed the bill even though his administration had concerns over whether the provision would be effective.

If Romney, who founded the investment firm Bain Capital in Boston, runs for president in 2012, he is expected to make economic growth the cornerstone of his campaign.

The overseas tax plan is one of a few specific economic proposals Romney has revealed in speeches, while often settling instead on broadsides against President Obama’s policies.

The former Massachusetts governor and his aides declined to provide any more details about the overseas tax plan. A spokesman said he would tailor it to create as many jobs as possible.

“Mitt Romney’s intent in supporting repatriation is to make America stronger economically, and he’d look at specific ways of structuring this tax change so that it resulted in the creation of jobs,’’ Eric Fehrnstrom said in an e-mail.

Romney’s pitch mirrors an emerging corporate campaign that has been lobbying Congress and the White House to enact another one-year tax break. The issue involves a section of the tax code that applies to the profits earned by foreign subsidiaries of American corporations.

When profits are earned in the United States, they are subject to a 35 percent corporate tax rate. But if they are earned in another country, the multinational company can choose to be taxed instead by that country.