Cottage Industry in Opportunity Zone Data Forms to Fill Vacuum (1)

The 2017 tax law’s opportunity zone tax breaks are supposed to provide incentives for investors to help lift low-income neighborhoods out of poverty. Critics say they’ll accelerate gentrification while shielding wealthy people’s stock profits from taxes.

Neither side has much to back up their view, because there’s no federal requirement for the government to collect and share data on development spurred by the incentives. On a recent conference call with reporters, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Kevin Hassett cited Bureau of Labor Statistics data indicating that wages grew in the census tracts chosen for the incentives, but ...