Evaluating regeneration policies for rundown industrial sites in the Netherlands

To date, systematic evaluations of regeneration policies and programs for industrial sites are scarce. This is particularly the case for evaluations that aim to examine whether policy objectives are actually achieved and to what extent this was due to the implementation of that policy or program. Regeneration policies and programs for these sites usually involve public provision of infrastructure, public spaces and serviced building land by local authorities. The main objectives of these policies are to promote economic development and to stimulate private investments in buildings. To narrow this ‘evaluation gap’ in planning, this paper presents a conformance-based evaluation of regeneration policies for run-down industrial sites in the Netherlands over the 1997-2008 period. Pooled data from various sources provide us with information on regeneration initiatives, their duration and nature, as well as additional details on sites, location and regional characteristics for more than half of all sites in the country that existed in the 12-year period. Propensity score matching enables us to systematically compare outcomes related to regeneration policy objectives between sites that have been subjected to regeneration and those that have not. This in turn makes it possible to study the effects that regeneration initiatives have on these outcomes. The findings of this study suggest that regeneration for industrial sites has a negligible effect on outcomes related to the most commonly stated policy objectives: the increase of employment, of firm numbers, of property values and of the intensity of land-use on these sites. JEL classifications: O22, R33, R38, R42