Louisville’s Economic Opportunity Zones: A Rerun of the Old Louisville Enterprise Zone Program?

Thomas Lambert

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: In 2017 the US Congress passes and President Donald J. Trump signs the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Part of the legislation allows states to create economic opportunity zones (EOZs), census tracts which will be targeted for business investment and economic development through federal tax incentives. In Louisville, Kentucky, as in other jurisdictions throughout the US over the last several decades, special district “zones” have been used by local, state, and/or the federal government(s) to try to revive low-income, deteriorated, and blighted areas. These have been typically urban areas but sometimes have included semi-rural and rural areas. Whether named enterprise zones, empowerment zones, or currently, economic opportunity zones, such programs have received mixed reviews over the years. This paper looks at the current EOZs in Louisville, and similar to other studies looking at EOZs, finds only slight improvement at best so far in results. The exception is an area of the city that has been undergoing a great deal of gentrification already. With this in mind, and with the shortcomings chronicled on the old Louisville enterprise zone (EZ) that exists from 1983 to 2003, this paper speculates on and offers some reasons for why such economic development efforts, despite their mixed reviews, persist.

Keywords: economic opportunity zones; empowerment zones; enterprise zones (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B50 R11 R28 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-06-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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