A team of researchers New York University and MIT have published a draft paper presenting an analysis on the effect of Opportunity Zones (OZs) on employment outcomes.

Rachel M. B. Atkins

New York University (NYU) - Department of Management and Organizational Behavior

Pablo Hernandez-Lagos

New York University, Abu Dhabi

Cristian Jira-Figueroa

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Robert Seamans

New York University (NYU) - Leonard N. Stern School of Business

The analysis matches zip codes with OZs to a control group of similar zip codes that do not have any OZs and compare job postings and posted salaries across these two groups over time. Zip codes with OZs have Fewer Job Postings but Higher Posted Salaries, though both effects are very small in magnitude. Additionally, the research explored the extent to which the results are driven by OZs. About 8700 census tracts were designated as OZs in 2018, yet it appears that only a few hundred have received investments. Those OZs for which data was gathered on investments are among the most economically attractive in that they already had more job postings and job growth prior to their OZ designation. A redo of the analysis on the smaller set of OZs with investment finds fewer job postings and higher posted salaries, but the magnitudes are slightly higher than on the full matched sample. Link to the draft paper: https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/job-postings-opportunity-zones/overview/

file:///C:/Users/emilb/OneDrive/Documents/Opporunity%20Zones%20File/Podcast-Webinar%20Resources%20File/OZ%20effect%20on%20employment.pdf