In this paper we undertake an ex-post evaluation of whether the special economic zones (SEZs) introduced in Poland in 1994 have been successful in meeting regional development objectives. We evaluate the policy on as many of its objectives as possible: employment creation, business creation...

The influence of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) on the host country's economy has been studied for several decades now. A great number of theoretical papers using models to demonstrate SEZ importance for local development have been produced. However, purely empirical studies utilising the...

We propose in this paper a critical review of the literature on urban enterprise zones. The results that emerge from the papers published over the last twenty years vary a lot across studies. Several explanations can account for these apparently conflicting results. Technical tools and empirical...

Rampant violation of basic legal frameworks protecting labor rights in the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) is something not unheard of. The governments however, turn a deaf ear towards such violation and hardly use their authority to intervene, in exchange for providing the investors a tax free and...

Special economic zones (SEZs) have been touted as “tools for development”, and yet their results have often been disappointing. We explain how SEZs can be used to reform a country from a system dominated by rent-seeking to a liberalized economy, where officials derive their revenues from...

In the last decade, dozens of local governments have enacted zoning ordinances designed to limit the concentration of payday lenders and other alternative financial services providers (AFSPs), such as check-cashing businesses and auto title loan shops, in their communities. The main impetus for...

Much of the debate on industrialization and displacement has, so far, focused on the optimum compensation for affected households. Our recently concluded study, comprising of a sample of 1017 households including 630 affected (displaced and land acquired) and 387 unaffected households, looks at...

Industrial parks are as popular as they are controversial, in India and globally. At their best they align infrastructure provision and agglomeration economies to jolt industrial growth. More often, they generate negative spill-overs, provide handouts, sit empty, or simply do not get built. This...

Industrial parks are as popular as they are controversial, in India and globally. At their best they align infrastructure provision and agglomeration economies to jolt industrial growth. More often, they generate negative spill-overs, provide handouts, sit empty, or simply do not get built. This...

Support for economic reforms has often shown puzzling dynamics: many reforms that began successfully lost public support. This paper shows that learning dynamics can rationalize this paradox because the process of revealing reform outcomes is an example of sampling without replacement. This...