The Eect of Place Based Policies on Rural Communities: An Evaluation of Rural Empowerment Zones

In this study, I examine the U.S. Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community program to determine if the designation of rural communities as empowerment zones (EZ) aected migration trends. In addition, I examine whether the EZ designation aected the share of employed individuals and younger, educated adults in these communities. I conduct a dierence-in-dierence estimation between EZs and four control groups: tracts with a poverty rate of at least 20% and 25%, tracts in counties with persistently high poverty rates, and enterprise communities. I also use the synthetic control method as a robustness check. The results indicate that EZs had less outmigration, but that the share of employed and educated individuals was unaected.

本研究针对美国授权区与企业社区计划（U.S. Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community Program）展开分析，旨在验证将农村社区划定为授权区（EZ）是否会对人口迁移趋势产生影响。此外，本研究同时考察了EZ划定是否会影响样本社区内就业人群占比，以及年轻受教育成年群体的占比。本研究采用双重差分法（difference-in-differences）开展估计，将授权区与四类对照组进行对比：贫困率不低于20%、25%的普查区，县域贫困率持续高位的普查区，以及企业社区。同时，本研究还运用合成控制法（synthetic control method）进行稳健性检验。研究结果表明，授权区的人口外流规模有所缩减，但就业人群与受教育群体的占比未受到显著影响。