It’s early November and, for many Americans, it’s time to think about the turkey and other treats for Thanksgiving celebrations.  It’s also time to get ready for Global Entrepreneurship Week, which will be celebrated from November 17-23, 2025. As in the past, this year should see thousands of entrepreneurship-focused celebrations around the world.  You can find a sample listing of global events here.

This week is also witnessing a related celebration sponsored by NFTE, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and one of the world’s leading youth entrepreneurship advocates.  NFTE is promoting November 7th as Youth Entrepreneurship Day, where they’ll be honoring our youngest entrepreneurs. You can find resources for this event here. 

Earlier today, I attended an excellent Urban Institute webinar examining the state of the opportunity zone program.  As a reminder, Opportunity Zones (OZs) were initiated in the first Trump Administration and served as one of the primary new economic development programs developed by the Trump team.  As the program moves to a new phase, Governors across the US also have an opportunity to designate new opportunity zones.  The webinar, and related research, were designed to help provide useful background research for these upcoming decisions.

The research examines Ohio’s experience with Opportunity Zones, and builds on a unique dataset on Ohio-based investments. The results to date are not inspiring.  Overall, Ohio is home to 238 designated opportunity zones. Between 2020 and 2024, only 1/3 of these sites received in investment, and more than half of all funds went to a few zones, mainly based in Cleveland and Columbus.  Other parts of the state, especially rural areas, received little or no OZ-related investments.  The study also found that many OZs were located in areas where outside investment was likely to occur whether or not the OZ was in place. Distressed regions were rarely able to access investments.  The study also found that most Ohio deals focused on housing development as opposed to other types of economic development activity.

Moving forward, the researchers recommend that Governors focus on designated new rural OZs, which now have additional incentives for investment attraction .  They also recommend a renewed focus on selecting new OZs, where the need is greatest and where investment and economic growth would occur only “but for” the OZ incentives. The “best” OZs operate according to a “Goldilocks principle” where OZs create a tippling point to spur new investment.