Evaluation to inform New York State public policy: An examination of the Empire Zone program

This research project examines the New York State economic development program called Empire Zones. The foundation uses theories of public policymaking with evaluation as an essential component of the process. The position taken by the author is that state officials and other interested parties have not fully assessed the possible outcomes of Empire Zones. Problems such as lack of appropriate data, unclear policy objectives and historically poor research methods have precluded a meaningful assessment of impacts from this statewide economic development policy. The argument stated here is that state officials and other interested parties should attempt to engage recently developed research methods toward a more complete evaluation of Empire Zones before proclaiming any alleged benefit or detriment.