As the significance of business improvement districts (BIDs) has grown in recent years in the governance of urban and metropolitan areas, not only in North America but also in a variety of European, Asian, and African countries, academic interest in them followed. BIDs are self-assessment districts that are initiated and governed by property or businessowners and authorized by state or local governments to operate in designated urban and suburban geographic areas. In the relatively short history of the academic literature on BIDs, they have been interpreted in a variety of ways and analyzed through different theoretical lenses. To some, they are yet another example of the privatization of the delivery of public services
