Assessing the impact of special economic zones on regional growth through a comparison among EU countries
研究了51个欧洲激励区，通过新复合指标和倾向得分匹配评估不同激励区类型（经济特区、自由贸易区、自由区）对区域增长的影响，发现产业政策工具均取得显著正向效果但成功程度不同。
The establishment of incentive zones represents a cluster policy approach that a country can implement to boost economic growth. Being influenced by regional characteristics, the success of specific incentive types (special economic zones, free-trade zones, free zones) may vary considerably. By using a new composite indicator, differently designed according to each type of development plan, this study analyses 51 European incentive zones so as to identify best practices. Moreover, propensity score matching allows the net impact of the industrial policy to be assessed. The findings show significant positive results achieved by the various industrial policy instruments with differing levels of success.