Economic Zones and Regional Development

Governments have long used geographically bounded zones—Special Economic Zones, Export Processing Zones, free trade areas—to attract foreign investment, concentrate industrial activity, and accelerate growth in regions that might otherwise be left behind by global markets. Researchers study how these zones shape surrounding labor markets, supply chains, and local institutions, asking whether the benefits stay within the zone or actually diffuse into the broader economy. Central tensions remain unresolved: zones can generate employment and export capacity while also concentrating poor labor conditions or displacing domestic firms, and the outcomes vary sharply depending on governance quality, infrastructure, and the social composition of host regions. Active work is now probing how zones can be designed to support sustainable development goals and whether their effects differ across ethnically diverse communities where wealth distribution and political access are already uneven.

Works

64,997

Total citations

133,590

Keywords

Special Economic ZonesExport Processing ZonesEconomic ImpactRegional DevelopmentIndustrial ClustersGlobal Trade