The federal Empowerment Zone (EZ) program was introduced in 1993. It was touted as a way to encourage economic activity among distressed communities in the United States, although subsequent investigations have yielded mixed results. A vast majority of prior literature focuses on outcomes that reflect average effects, such as the poverty rate or average income. I suspect that focus likely fails to paint a complete picture of the poor in EZs. To extend the literature, I explore the impacts of EZs on the depth of poverty within zones. I find no evidence that suggests the EZ program benefitted impoverished zone residents. After controlling for geographic changes in census tract borders, census tract fixed effects, and re-weighting comparison areas for potential endogeneity bias in EZ designation, I find that the estimated impact of the EZ program is a 2.19% increase in the depth of poverty. That is, non-EZ designated areas experienced larger decreases in the depth of poverty in the same time frame. Although explanations for these results are less clear, this thesis presents clear evidence that EZs have failed to help low-income zone residents.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["Economics","Poverty"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 24118