Heterogeneous Effects of State Enterprise Zone Programs in the Shorter Run and Longer Run

The authors take up two questions that have not been explored in research on enterprise zones. First, does a considerably longer-run perspective on the effects of state enterprise zones lead to different answers? And second, are there heterogeneous effects of enterprise zones that depend on the set of incentives these programs offer, which can vary widely? The results indicate that whether state enterprise zone programs were observed through a longer-term lens, or through the lens of program heterogeneity, the authors generally did not find any consistent indication of beneficial effects of state enterprise zone programs; if anything, the longer-run effects are negative. The lack of positive effects is consistent with most of the prior evidence that focuses on effects that are short term and homogeneous.

On Half-Built Assemblages: Waiting for a Data Center in Prineville, Oregon

In 2010 the mega-corporation Facebook finalized an agreement to build a massive data center in Prineville, a small town in central Oregon previously known for logging, cattle ranching, and as the headquarters of the Les Schwab tire company. This was a largely unanticipated event that local leaders nonetheless prepared for several decades before when they designated a rural economic zone on the outskirts of town. However, the enterprise zone sat mostly unused, an empty and dusty piece of high desert land dotted with sagebrush and juniper trees. I describe the preparatory efforts that laid the groundwork for the data center as effecting a “half-built assemblage.” Through such anticipatory reconfigurations, local leaders recognized the limits of regional government to overcome the challenges of their peripherality. In the controversy surrounding such data center deals, critics have often cast rural leaders as naive or as pandering to voters. However, I argue that the alliance with Facebook was one of the few courses of action available to local leaders that had any chance of realizing regional economic development goals. In seeking to understand the data center deal from a local perspective, I contribute an alternative notion of temporality to materialist theorizing by looking across much longer durations of time in relation to the political economy, the natural world, and other elements as a way to temper exaggerations of anthropocentric agency and the narrow attribution of blame.

Do Research Methods Matter in Enterprise Zone Outcome Evaluations?

Zhang (2015) and Lambert and Coomes (2001) have studied the Louisville Enterprise Zone (EZ) program and drawn different conclusions. This Forum/Letter to the Editor unpacks the differences in both studies by first exploring the structure and implementation of a state EZ program and various factors affecting EZ outcome measures. Methodologically, it is crucial to control for these factors to avoid biases in assessing the effectiveness of a program. Further exploration of conventional methods in the existing literature suggests that econometric analyses can offer remedies to control for these factors.

Short-Term Versus Long-Term Effects of the Louisville Enterprise Zone Incentives: A Response to Sumei Zhang

Zhang wrote that the Louisville enterprise zone (EZ) was more successful than what previous research showed and that variations in research design have led to conflicting or mixed reviews of many local economic development policies that are based on the EZ concept. She mentions a study and an article on the Louisville, Kentucky EZ and implies the time horizon used to evaluate it was too short. This Forum/Letter to the Editor points out that the Louisville EZ went through multiple transformations and expansions over its history from 1983 to 2003, and as noted in the first of two studies, the original zone showed virtually no progress from 1983 to 1990. Several other unpublished papers pointed out the same results when the original EZ and other parts of the expanded EZ were analyzed up to the last years of the 20th century. Finally, this Forum/Letter to the Editor argues that and provides reasons for the methodology employed by Lambert and Coomes as a superior way of analyzing the Louisville EZ when compared with the methods employed by Zhang. The main reason why Zhang showed success in the EZ is because she mostly evaluates it in its final form in the late 1990s after it had annexed many sections of Jefferson County, which were not as nearly economically disadvantaged as the original Louisville EZ established in 1983.

Do Enterprise Zones have a role to play in delivering a place-based industrial strategy?

We examine the body of evidence on Enterprise Zone policy with the objective of assessing its role in broader place-based industrial strategy. We conduct an extensive review, consolidate the empirical evidence into one place and examine it according to economic impact by zone type. We identify two gaps in the empirical knowledge that are systematically addressed through new research on several US Enterprise Zones to gain new evidence on their economic additionality. The article concludes by considering other, hitherto poorly explored, pathways by which zones may help an area to adapt to change and embrace longer-term economic futures.

Rethinking U.S. enterprise zones: The role of research design in program evaluation

This paper offers an up-to-date review of Enterprise Zone programs across states in the U.S. An Enterprise Zone program often focuses on target locations, populations, and/or industries. Enterprise Zone program designs and implementations vary between states. The expected outcomes are likely to differ from the desired outcome, which is to revitalize Enterprise Zone areas. This paper also provides a review of the existing Enterprise Zone empirical literature on program effectiveness assessments. There are conflicting recommendations, even for the same Enterprise Zone program. To assess whether research design contributes to this situation, the paper explores several research design factors, including outcome measure, time span, spatial unit, data choice, and control of endogeneity. Information on these research factors in the existing literature is collected and coded. Descriptive and correlation analyses suggest that outcome measure, spatial unit, post-program time span, and the choice of an endogeneity control method have significant impacts on program effectiveness assessments.