Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-2026

Department

Economics

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 opportunity zones (OZs), 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, opportunity or economic opportunity zones (EOZs in Louisville), such programs have received mixed reviews at best over the years. This note looks at the current EOZs in Louisville, and similar to other studies looking at EOZs, finds substandard results at best in the results so far. The exception is an area of the city that has been undergoing a great deal of gentrification for about the last 20 years or so, and this finding follows those at the national level in which the most successful EOZs are those areas that are gentrifying. With this in mind, and with the outcomes chronicled on the old Louisville enterprise zone (EZ) that exists from 1983 to 2003, this case study speculates on and offers some reasons for why such economic development efforts, despite their mixed reviews, persist. Finally, a reason for why some goals and not others are achieved is offered, and it appears that EOZs continue a pattern of neo-liberal policies that go back to the 1980s.

Comments

This is the preprint of an article to be published at a later date.

Original version 6/24

updated version 5/26

ORCID

0000-0003-2453-1407

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