There is a long history of implementing place-based local economic development strategies in the pursuit of neighborhood (and consequently, citywide) revitalization (Bartik 1991; Leigh and Blakely 2013). Standard evaluations of these approaches focus exclusively on employment outcomes; while this is a crucial metric for assessing their effectiveness, the impacts are often broader and more nuanced than what can be captured in this single outcome. In this panel, the papers consider the role of place-based economic development strategies in the context of mixed-use neighborhoods that are not only places of employment and business, but also places of residence and consumption. The first paper, by Meltzer and Capperis, provides a policy-neutral starting point for the panel and attempts to measure the value of retail services for local residents. Their study will shed light on how residents perceive neighborhood-based retail services (i.e. as an amenity or a nuisance) and how these services are valued differently across neighborhoods of varying economic and demographic characteristics. The other two papers focus on particular policies or interventions and their potential impact on the neighborhood’s economic activity. The second paper, by Matt Freedman, looks at the impact of a federally subsidized economic development program (the New Market Tax Credits) on localized employment in lower income neighborhoods. Specifically, he tests whether or not these subsidies go towards firms and economic activity that hire workers from within the targeted community. This paper offers a much-needed empirical investigation of whether the benefits from place-based investments in fact stay within the targeted communities. The third paper, by Reynolds and Rohlin, relies on the case of Empowerment Zones to test for the distributional effects of place-based programs on local households. The authors augment the studies that typically measure average income effects across a community or multiple communities, and observe meaningful differences in how the targeted intervention affects low- versus high-income households. Jorge De la Roca, who studies neighborhood and firm dynamics, will discuss the papers. He brings methodological rigor and a strong understanding of the economic mechanics underlying the issues that cut across the three papers. Jenny Schuetz, who specializes in urban real estate and economic development, will chair the panel and discussion. Together, these papers revisit the merits and challenges of place-based economic development policies, using a collection of innovative empirical strategies and rich micro datasets. There is also geographic diversity in the papers. The Meltzer and Capperis piece uses data from New York City, host to a wide variety of neighborhoods, to summarize the benefits and costs of living near retail services. The Freedman and Reynolds/Rohlin papers use data from multiple U.S. cities to study the impact of place-based policies on local labor pools and household economic positions. The panel addresses the fact that neighborhood-based economic development strategies are situated in dynamic and mixed-use settings, and any assessment of their outcomes should be viewed from a similarly diverse set of lenses.