Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/58531 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6357
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper presents an impact evaluation of the French enterprise zone program which was initiated in 1997 to help unemployed workers find employment by granting a significant wage-tax exemption (about one third of total labor costs) to firms hiring at least 20% of their labor force locally. Drawing from a unique geo-referenced dataset of unemployment spells in the Paris region over an extensive period of time (1993-2003), we are able to measure the direct effect of the program on unemployment duration, distinguishing between short- and medium-term effects. This is done by implementing an original two-stage empirical strategy using individual data in the first stage and aggregate data and conditional linear matching techniques in the second stage. We show that although the enterprise zones program tended to pick winners, it is likely to be cost-ineffective. It had a small but significant effect on the rate at which unemployed workers find a job (which is increased by a modest 3 percent). This effect is localized and significant only in the short run (i.e. at best during the 3 years that follow the start of the policy).
Subjects: 
enterprise zone
evaluation of programs
regional policies
unemployment
JEL: 
C21
J60
J68
R58
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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