Globally, special economic zones (SEZs) are created to boost exports and promote investment by providing units located inside the zones with certain fiscal and non-fiscal incentives that are not available to and/or are different from those given to units in the domestic tariff area (DTA). In...

This paper exploits time and geographic variation in the adoption of Special Economic Zones in India to assess the direct and spillover effects of the program. We combine geocoded firm-level data and geocoded SEZs using a concentric ring approach, thus creating a novel dataset of firms with...

As countries rapidly urbanize, settlements are expanding into hazardous flood zones. This study provides a global analysis of spatial urbanization patterns and the evolution of flood exposure between 1985 and 2015. Using high-resolution annual data, it shows that settlements across the world...

As countries rapidly urbanize, settlements are expanding into hazardous flood zones. This study provides a global analysis of spatial urbanization patterns and the evolution of flood exposure between 1985 and 2015. Using high-resolution annual data, it shows that settlements across the world...

This paper evaluates the effects of a place-based program in the Yangtze Delta of China-Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Taking into account spatial proximity, this paper quantifies the spillover effects of the human capital in SEZs. One major finding is that regional productivity benefits from...

Using a prefectural level data, we shed the light on the knowledge spillovers within three mega-economic zones (MEZs) in China by adopting spatial econometric methods. We first examine the spillovers within all regions, and then the spillovers within the MEZs, and finally the spillovers from...

As countries rapidly urbanize, settlements are expanding into hazardous flood zones. This study provides a global analysis of spatial urbanization patterns and the evolution of flood exposure between 1985 and 2015. Using high-resolution annual data, it shows that settlements across the world...

Purpose - China has established 14 marine economic development demonstration zones in 2018, which has become an important step in exploring the high-quality development of the marine economy. The paper statistically analyzes the documents related to the field of marine economy and special...

This paper exploits time and geographic variation in the adoption of Special Economic Zones in India to assess the direct and spillover effects of the program. We combine geocoded firm-level data and geocoded SEZs using a concentric ring approach, thus creating a novel dataset of firms with...

A provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 offered tax incentives for investing in certain low-income areas in the United States called Opportunity Zones (OZs). The goal of this provision was to spur private investment in OZs in order to improve the economic well-being of their residents....

Cities today are confronting never-before-seen challenges to their top spot in the economic hierarchy. In this chapter, we lay out four challenges, past and future, that cities face today and identify policies that can help address the problems we identify. We call attention to the need for many...

Evaluating the effectiveness of place-based policies has always been a hot topic in urban and regional economics. In this paper, we investigated the spillover effects of place-based policies from the perspective of micro-firm productivity, based on the special period of China’s development...

Economic zones can be powerful drivers of economic growth in developing countries. However, less is known about their distributional impact on the local society. This paper provides empirical evidence from Indonesian provinces on the relationship between economic zones and within-province income...

Nearly ten years since the official launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an understanding of what the initiative's objectives are consolidated. However, the short-, mid-, and long-term implications of the initiative are less clear. This is reflected in academic research, as well as in...

As the main spatial carrier of land urbanization, the Development Zone (DZ) is the pilot and demonstration area for realizing the economization of intensive land usage. Land leasing is the key to guiding the efficient allocation of DZ land resources. Based on the DZ land leasing systems,...

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the optimal design of a residential zone in a linear town by a welfare-maximizing regulator when firms might know to some extent the position of the customers/citizens in the city. Information might have different degrees of imperfectness. A...

With the easing or elimination of economic sanctions and shift away from authoritarian military rule, Myanmar is now attracting large-scale foreign investment. One of the Myanmar government’s strategies to attract foreign investment is the creation of special economic zones (SEZs). An SEZ is a...

The paper addresses the importance of redesigning strategies for resilient and sustainable regional economic development – by applying strategic approaches to free economic zones for the digital economy. The purpose of the paper is to provide a broad comparative perspective on developed versus...

The Opportunity Zone (OZ) program, which is designed to provide place-based equity investments into certain low-income communities, has potential upsides and pitfalls. The program is complicated, and it implicates numerous spheres of policy expertise. But currently, it is mostly administered by...

We study why acquisitions of entrant firms by an incumbent can deter innovation and entry in the digital platform industry, where there are strong network externalities and some customers face switching costs. A high probability of an acquisition induces some potential early adopters to wait for...

The means, motivations, and methods of host culture groups’ (indigenous people’s) contributions to the national and local economic development by means of eco- and cultural tourism in the border area of Tak province closely links cross-border Karen communities (between Thailand and the Karen...

There are two kinds of traffic congestion at a toll plaza on a highway: congestion in the approach zone and congestion in the departure zone, which has received less attention. The performance improvement in the departure zone can directly reduce congestion in that area and indirectly increase...

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been invested to construct development zones (DZs) in China with the intent of fostering economic growth. Previous studies show that DZs benefit the local economy, but little attention has been paid to the environmental impacts. Based on statistical data and...

This paper studies the effect of the West Philadelphia Promise Zone Initiative on weeklyviolent crime rates in a high-crime area of West Philadelphia, where a series of public safetyand quality of life improvement grants were dispersed from 2014 to 2019. Results using adifference-in-differences...

Growing spatial inequality has led policymakers to enact tax breaks to attract corporate investment and jobs to economically peripheral regions. We demonstrate the importance of multi-plant firms’ physical capital structure for the efficacy of place-based policies by studying a bonus...

This study examines the effect of investment promotion through the special economic zone (SEZ) mechanism on foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow across Cambodia. We applied generalized methods of moments (GMM) to panel data constructed from 19 Cambodian provinces during 2015-2019. Our results...

The blue economy or marine economy has become increasingly important for countries not only to generate a new source of growth but also to construct the coexistence between humans and the environment. The People's Republic of China (PRC) has attached great importance to the blue economy since...

This paper reviews the policies and regulations for special economic zones and other spatial development modalities in the countries within proximity of the Eastern Corridor in South Asia, and it assesses whether those policies and regulations are effectively designed. The assessment finds mixed...

Place-based policies had a bad reputation for decades, if they received any attention at all. This has recently changed, for two reasons. First, many countries have experienced political backlashes from rising spatial economic disparities. Populist movements received the highest support in...