← Research POLICY REPORT · 2023

Are Opportunity Zones Working? What the Literature Tells Us

Kenan Fikri, Ben Glasner

Economic Innovation Group

Summary

This brief takes stock of the growing academic literature evaluating Opportunity Zones five years after the program’s enactment. Effect estimates on early outcomes range from positive to null, but many of the most widely cited studies analyze a window that ends before Opportunity Zone regulations were even finalized, an implausibly early period for detecting real effects. Studies that observe at least two years of activity under fully finalized regulations find the strongest positive investment effects, suggesting that patience and correct timing matter for judging the policy fairly.

A plain-language summary written for this site, not the authors' published abstract. See the published version for the original.

Cite this

Kenan Fikri and Ben Glasner. 2023. “Are Opportunity Zones Working? What the Literature Tells Us.” Economic Innovation Group. https://eig.org/opportunity-zones-research-brief/.

BibTeX

@techreport{fikri_glasner_2023_oz_literature,
  title = {Are {Opportunity Zones} Working? {What} the Literature Tells Us},
  author = {Fikri, Kenan and Glasner, Ben},
  institution = {Economic Innovation Group},
  year = {2023},
  month = oct,
}