An Evaluation of California's Enterprise Zone Programs

Abstract

In 1984, California joined the growing list of states adopting enterprise zone legislation in an attempt to stimulate targeted business development and employment growth within economically distressed areas. This article reports on a first-ever assessment of whether California's two enterprise zone programs have stimulated employment. The existing Enterprise Zone and Economic Incentive Area programs (referred to in the article collectively as enterprise zone programs) have produced very modest economic benefits, and there is little evidence to suggest that they have strengthened the economic advantages of California's zones. Shift-share analysis indicates that employment growth was lower than predicted in 11 of 13 areas. A survey of businesses indicates that in only 23 cases did zone program incentives influence plant location or expansion decisions. In and of themselves, zone incentives and resources have apparently done little to boost job creation and business investment.

Política tributaria para mejorar la inversión y el crecimiento en América Latina

“…Sus resultados muestran que no hay efectos significativos en el empleo y en la actividad económica en las municipalidades que tienen beneficios tributarios en zonas geográficas específicas. La evidencia para las zonas industriales y comerciales en California es similar respecto a que no tienen efectos positivos en la generación de empleos (Dowall (1996), Neumark y Kolko (2010)). Finalmente, en un estudio más general que incluye datos para las zonas industriales y comerciales en California, Kentucky, Nueva York, Pennsylvania y Virginia, Bondonio y Engberg (2000) llegan a la misma conclusión, los incentivos tributarios no generan más empleo.…”

A program evaluation of the Louisville Enterprise Zone : a study of local planning and economic development.

“…More recently, Dowall (1996) found that most of manner. An EZ located in one part of a city, it is argued, will simply attract capital and jobs away from other parts of the city.…”

“…The approach taken was 64 similar to that used in Rubin andWilder (1989) andDowall (1996). Also, the rate of growth for the two control areas to be analyzed ( Price, 1994).…”

“…Also, the rate of growth for the two control areas to be analyzed ( Price, 1994). The last two data sources were used in a shiftshare analysis of EZ job creation following Dowall (1996), and are considered to be the most accurate sources available for estimating net changes in job numbers and industrial composition over a given period of time.…”

The Impact of Round II Urban Empowerment Zones on Local Communities

“…The first Previous studies on state enterprise zones have also used aggregate data on zip codes (e.g., Bondonio and Greebaum, 2007;Dowall, 1996). However, these imprecise approximations may result in a bias towards finding no significant effect (Neumark and Solko, 2010).…”