PLACE‐BASED POLICIES: CAN WE DO BETTER THAN ENTERPRISE ZONES?

High concentrations of poverty and joblessness in urban areas provide a strong rationale for place-based policies. In addition, gains in employment and income in disadvantaged areas may have positive spillovers for places via network effects that generate positive multipliers from local hiring. BACKGROUND EVIDENCE Many U.S. cities have had persistently high poverty rates, high unemployment rates, and low employment rates, and continue to have large concentrations of poor people in extremely poor areas. The Florida Back-to-Work Program, based on state unemployment insurance (UI) records, generated higher earnings and employment for participants (including the long-term unemployed) than for eligible nonparticipants in the four quarters after the program ended (Roder & Elliott, [21]). [Extracted from the article]