choice to use the shift-share analysis method with the larger metropolitan area as the reference region allowed Rubin & Wilder to go a step further than previous studies and exclude "external effects" that might be stimulating or depressing regional economic growth and development.) The study found that the Evansville zone did provide significant employment growth that could not be accounted for by external effects or the industrial composition of the zone itself. The zone was also found to be extremely cost-effective in its job creation. Overall, the consensus on the effectiveness of enterprise zones in the US is mixed at best. Lambert and Coomes (2001) found that the Louisville, Kentucky enterprise zone mostly benefited large corporations rather than small entrepreneurs and did not benefit local neighborhoods at all, even though community re-development was a goal. More importantly, in a book that reviewed most major enterprise zone studies done in the 1980s and 1990s as well as conducting its own original work, Peters and Fisher (2002) consider most state and local enterprise zone programs to have come up short in achieving their goals and objectives. References Further reading Peter Hall. 1991. The British Enterprise Zones. in Roy E. Green (ed). Enterprise Zones: New Directions in Economic Development. Sage. Hyman, W. 1998. EMPOWERMENT ZONES, ENTERPRISE COMMUNITIES, BLACK BUSINESS, AND UNEMPLOYMENT. Washington University Journal of Urban and Contemporary Law. 53: 143–170. Wetherell, S. 2016 Freedom Planned: Enterprise Zones and Urban Non-Planning in Post-War Britain Twentieth Century British History, Volume 27, Issue 2, Pages 266–289 External links Enterprise Zones: Historical Perspective and General Background Race, Entrepreneurship, and the Inner City by John Sibley Butler Enterprise Zones: A Review of the Economic Theory and Empirical Evidence Special economic zones Urban economics