Enterprise Zones: New Deal, Old Deal, or No Deal?

The purpose ofthis paper isto examine some ofthe salient features of the concept of enterprise zones, especially those aspects included intheadministration'splan,inanefforttopredicttheactualoutcome of this policy proposal if it is enacted and implemented. Even though the concept of enterprise zones is advertised as a new approach, a central part of our argument is that in terms of its incentives the proposed legislation basically is similar to previous programs. In fact, we argue that the present legislative proposal may be viewed best as a combination of selected features from previous programs rather than as a logical extension of the original ideas for enterprise zones. In making this observation, we distinguish between the rhetoric surrounding the legislative proposals and the actual initiatives. The current rhetoric has the appealing ring of free-market ideals. The actual legislative proposal backs away from the original ideals and retains the features of previous programs. Accordingly, the lessons learned from those previous efforts at the federal, state, and local levels provide important insights as to the expected impacts of the Enterprise Zone Proposal...