The impact of state enterprise zones on urban manufacturing establishments

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, the vast majority of states have implemented enterprise zones. This paper analyzes urban zones in six states, examining the factors that states use to choose zone locations and the subsequent effect of the zones on business activity and employment. The source of outcome data is the U.S. Bureau of Census' longitudinal research database (LRD), which tracks manufacturing establishments over time. Matched sample and geographic comparison groups are created to measure the impact of zone policy on employment, establishment, shipment, payroll, and capital spending outcomes. Consistent with previous findings, the difference-in-difference estimates indicate that zones have little effect, on average. However, by exploiting the establishment-level data to examine gross as well as net changes, the analysis finds that zones have a positive effect on the outcomes of new establishments and a negative effect on the outcomes of previously existing establishments. © 2004 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Do spatially targeted redevelopment programs spillover?

“…4 There is a literature that examines the effect of U.S. state-level geographically targeted incentive programs that we would also describe as finding mixed results. Several studies find positive effects including Papke (1994), O'Keefe (2004), andBillings (2008), and others finding small or no net effects including Boarnet and Bogart (1996), Bondonio and Engberg (2000), Greenbaum and Engberg (2004), Bondonio and Greenbaum (2007), Elvery (2009), andNeumark andKolko (2010). See Buss (2001) for a comprehensive review of this literature.…”

Reducing Gun Violence: Results from an Intervention in East Los Angeles

“…The estimated probability of a block group being selected for the intervention is the propensity score (Rosenbaum and Rubin, 1983Rubin, , 1984, or the predicted probability that a particular place, given its characteristics, will adopt a particular program (Bartik, 2002). This method has been used to evaluate enterprise zones for economic development (Greenbaum and Engberg, 1998;Engberg and Greenbaum, 1999;Bondonio and Engberg, 2000), job training programs (Dehejia and Wahba, 1999), and how violence affects local business decisions (Greenbaum and Tita, 2002).…”

The Effect of Location-Based Tax Incentives on Establishment Location and Employment across Industry Sectors

“…The motivation behind these policies is debatable, but whether or not they succeed in attracting or maintaining economic activity within the targeted area is an empirical question. Academic research on the success of location based tax policy is mixed, with several studies finding positive effects (Papke (1994), Busso and Kline (2006), Billings (2008), Krupka and Noonan (2009)) and others finding small or no net effects (Boarnet and Bogart (1996), Bondonio and Engberg (2000), Greenbaum and Engberg (2004), Bondonio and Greenbaum (2007), Elvery (2009), Hanson (2009), Neumark and Kolko (2010)). 1 The goal of this paper is to determine if location-based tax policy has a differential effect across industry sectors.…”