The performance of the United States foreign trade zones and their impact on export intensity (a panel data approach)

World export processing zones have been an important part of the industrial transformation of developing economies. Export processing zones help develop competitive advantages through income generation, foreign direct investment, technological spillovers, and infrastructure improvements. They are separated economic enclaves in which the companies typically produce manufactures, which are exported later. In the United States, the importance of these enclaves to the exporting activity has been scarcely studied due to the nation increasing imports and decreasing exports activities. In spite of the minimum national export activity, there has been an effort to revamp the export activities in the metropolitan areas. The main objective of this project is to identify if there is a relationship between foreign trade zones and the export intensity of the areas in which they are located in the United States. Foreign Trade Zones can develop competitive advantages on regions with unfavorable macroeconomic conditions. Therefore the question to be answer is: what effect does Foreign Trade Zones have on the export intensity of the states and metropolitan statistical areas? The project addressed this question from macroeconomic and microeconomic perspectives.;To identify the relationship between Foreign Trade Zones and export intensity, an econometric model is created using variables based on studies from Gazel and Schwer, (1998), Santos-Paulino (2004, 2010), and Wu and Zeng (2008). The relationship was measured at three levels: state to national, metropolitan to state, and metropolitan to national. The results show a positive and statistically significant relationship at the state to national and metropolitan to state.;The Foreign Trade Zone effects at the microeconomic levels are measured through location quotients. The location quotient was calculated at the metropolitan, state, and national levels. In absolute terms, the results indicated the Foreign Trade Zones prominence on Southern and Midwestern states. The calculated location quotient was larger at the metropolitan statistical area level than at the state level. The results are of interest to academics and non-academics. The macroeconomic analysis provides empirical evidence of the effects of Foreign Trade Zones to export intensity. The microeconomic analysis provides locational information, useful to develop economic strategies and policies.