The differential responses to the implementation of special economic zones across states offer an opening to understand how policy implementation gets shaped by the regional political economy. Despite being home to a large number of SEZs, Tamil Nadu has been one state which has not witnessed resistance to SEZs in general, and land acquisition in particular, on a scale comparable to states with a similar history of SEZs. This paper offers a few plausible explanations for this phenomenon. It points out that there are clear structural reasons for the willingness of farmers to give up their land and move away from agriculture.