The Impact of Enterprise Zones on Resident Employment: An Evaluation of the Enterprise Zone Programs of California and Florida: Dissertation Summary

This dissertation estimates the impact of two geographically targeted economic development programs on the employment of people living in the targeted areas. This question is difficult to address for a number of reasons. Unlike in most program evaluation problems, the process that determines the outcome of interest (resident employment) happens at a lower level of aggregation than the process that determines selection for treatment. Therefore, standard program evaluation techniques have to be modified to address this issue. The programs I study, the enterprise zone programs of California and Florida, were designated at a very detailed level of geography, making it hard to measure the location and the characteristics of the zones. I develop a methodology to address the unusual selection process of these programs