Center for Public Enterprise

‹ People

Jake Higdon

Jake Higdon is a policy expert working at the intersection of clean energy, industrial strategy, and economic development. He is the Founding Director of Advanced Industrial Zones, a state and local policy initiative to accelerate modern industries, and a Fellow at California Forward. Jake previously served as Senior Advisor for U.S. Manufacturing at the Department of Energy (DOE). Prior to DOE, he worked on energy and climate policy at Environmental Defense Fund, Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy, Data for Progress, and the Obama White House. He holds degrees from Columbia University and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Reports

Zones as industrial policy

Industrial zones are imbued with a set of differentiated physical, infrastructural, governance, and/or land use features designed to promote industrial development and agglomeration – with, recently, a clear focus on high-tech and clean-tech sectors.

Posts

Contemporary zone-based industrial development models in the United States

When you hear of economic development “zones,” what comes to mind? The landscape of American economic development is full of them. Two famous programs are Opportunity Zones and Enterprise Zones, which are different flavors of tax incentives, both sector-agnostic. While they can be successful at attracting private investment to things like commercial office buildings and […]