The Impact of Urban Enterprise Zones on Establishments' Location Decisions: Evidence from French ZFUs
Abstract
In this paper, we study the impact of a French enterprise zones program---the ``Zones Franches Urbaines'' (ZFUs) policy---on establishments' location decisions. Our empirical analysis is based on a micro-geographic dataset which provides exhaustive information on the location of establishments in France over the period 2000-2007 at the census block level. We use a difference in difference approach combining spatial and time differencing. We also do triple difference estimations, using the fact that targeted urban areas have been selected in different waves over time. Finally, we exploit a discontinuity in the eligibility criteria of the policy as an exogenous source of variation to estimate the impact of the treatment. Our results show that the French ZFU policy has a positive and sizable impact on location choices. However, we also find that the policy mostly generates displacement effects, in particular through relocation of firms from the un-treated to the treated part within municipalities. Finally, the impact is shown to be highly heterogeneous across zones, firms and industries. The overall cost of moving establishments within municipalities is relatively high.Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Paper provided by C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers in its series CEPR Discussion Papers with number 9074.Length:
Date of creation: Aug 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:9074
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Related research
Keywords: enterprise zones; firm location;Other versions of this item:
- Thierry MAYER & Florian MAYNERIS & Loriane PY, 2012. "The Impact of Urban Enterprise Zones on Establishments' Location Decisions: Evidence from French ZFUs," Discussion Papers (IRES - Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales) 2012019, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
- R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
- R38 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Government Policy; Regulatory Policy
- R58 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Regional Government Analysis - - - Regional Development Planning and Policy
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2012-08-23 (All new papers)
- NEP-GEO-2012-08-23 (Economic Geography)
- NEP-URE-2012-08-23 (Urban & Real Estate Economics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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- Anthony Briant & Miren Lafourcade & Benoît Schmutz, 2012. "Can Tax Breaks Beat Geography? Lessons from the French Enterprise Zone Experience," PSE Working Papers halshs-00695225, HAL.
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g2011-13, Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques, DESE.
- Givord, Pauline & Rathelot, Roland & Sillard, Patrick, 2013. "Place-based tax exemptions and displacement effects: An evaluation of the Zones Franches Urbaines program," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 151-163.
- Pauline Givord & Roland Rathelot & Patrick Sillard, 2011. "Place-based Tax Exemptions and Displacement Effects : An Evaluation of the Zones Franches Urbaines Program," Working Papers 2011-19, Centre de Recherche en Economie et Statistique.
- Roland Rathelot & Patrick Sillard, 2008. "The Importance of Local Corporate Taxes in Business Location Decisions: Evidence From French Micro Data," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(527), pages 499-514, 03.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Chabé-Ferret, Sylvain, 2012. "Matching vs Differencing when Estimating Treatment Effects with Panel Data: the Example of the Effect of Job Training Programs on Earnings," TSE Working Papers 12-356, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
- Anthony Briant & Miren Lafourcade & Benoît Schmutz, 2012. "Can Tax Breaks Beat Geography? Lessons from the French Enterprise Zone Experience," PSE Working Papers halshs-00695225, HAL.
- Anthony Briant & Miren Lafourcade & Benoît Schmutz, 2012. "Can Tax Breaks Beat Geography? Lessons from the French Enterprise Zone Experience," Working Papers halshs-00695225, HAL.
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