IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/labeco/v29y2014icp72-82.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Getting to work: Experimental evidence on job search and transportation costs

Author

Listed:
  • Phillips, David C.

Abstract

Do transportation costs constrain job search in urban low wage labor markets? I test this question by providing transit subsidies to randomly selected clients of a non-profit employment agency. The subsidies generate a large, short-run increase in search intensity for a transit subsidy group relative to a control group receiving standard job search services but no transit subsidy. In the first two weeks, individuals assigned to the transit subsidy group apply and interview for 19% more jobs than those not receiving subsidies. The subsidies generate the greatest increase in search intensity for individuals living far from employment opportunities. Some suggestive evidence indicates that greater search intensity translates into shorter unemployment durations. These results provide experimental evidence in support of the theory that search costs over space can depress job search intensity, contributing to persistent urban poverty in neighborhoods far from job opportunities.

Suggested Citation

  • Phillips, David C., 2014. "Getting to work: Experimental evidence on job search and transportation costs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 72-82.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:29:y:2014:i:c:p:72-82
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2014.07.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537114000888
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.labeco.2014.07.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gautier, Pieter A. & Zenou, Yves, 2010. "Car ownership and the labor market of ethnic minorities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 392-403, May.
    2. Gobillon, Laurent & Rupert, Peter & Wasmer, Etienne, 2014. "Ethnic unemployment rates and frictional markets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 108-120.
    3. Heckman, James J & Lochner, Lance & Taber, Christopher, 1998. "General-Equilibrium Treatment Effects: A Study of Tuition Policy," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(2), pages 381-386, May.
    4. Bruno Crépon & Esther Duflo & Marc Gurgand & Roland Rathelot & Philippe Zamora, 2013. "Do Labor Market Policies have Displacement Effects? Evidence from a Clustered Randomized Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 531-580.
    5. Wasmer, Etienne & Zenou, Yves, 2002. "Does City Structure Affect Job Search and Welfare?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 515-541, May.
    6. Woodbury, Stephen A & Spiegelman, Robert G, 1987. "Bonuses to Workers and Employers to Reduce Unemployment: Randomized Trials in Illinois," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(4), pages 513-530, September.
    7. Wasmer, Etienne & Zenou, Yves, 2006. "Equilibrium search unemployment with explicit spatial frictions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 143-165, April.
    8. David Card & Jochen Kluve & Andrea Weber, 2010. "Active Labour Market Policy Evaluations: A Meta-Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(548), pages 452-477, November.
    9. Holzer Harry J. & Ihlanfeldt Keith R. & Sjoquist David L., 1994. "Work, Search, and Travel among White and Black Youth," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 320-345, May.
    10. Raphael, Steven & Rice, Lorien, 2002. "Car ownership, employment, and earnings," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 109-130, July.
    11. Ludwig, Jens & Duncan, Greg J. & Katz, Lawrence F. & Kessler, Ronald & Kling, Jeffrey R. & Gennetian, Lisa A. & Sanbonmatsu, Lisa, 2012. "Neighborhood Effects on the Long-Term Well-Being of Low-Income Adults," Scholarly Articles 11870359, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    12. Jeffrey R Kling & Jeffrey B Liebman & Lawrence F Katz, 2007. "Experimental Analysis of Neighborhood Effects," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(1), pages 83-119, January.
    13. Laurent Gobillon & Harris Selod & Yves Zenou, 2007. "The Mechanisms of Spatial Mismatch," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(12), pages 2401-2427, November.
    14. Zax, Jeffrey S & Kain, John F, 1996. "Moving to the Suburbs: Do Relocating Companies Leave Their Black Employees Behind?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(3), pages 472-504, July.
    15. Christopher A. Pissarides, 2000. "Equilibrium Unemployment Theory, 2nd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262161877, December.
    16. Harry J. Holzer & John M. Quigley & Steven Raphael, 2003. "Public transit and the spatial distribution of minority employment: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 415-441.
    17. Arthur J. Hosios, 1990. "On The Efficiency of Matching and Related Models of Search and Unemployment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(2), pages 279-298.
    18. Dan A. Black & Jeffrey A. Smith & Mark C. Berger & Brett J. Noel, 2003. "Is the Threat of Reemployment Services More Effective Than the Services Themselves? Evidence from Random Assignment in the UI System," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1313-1327, September.
    19. van den Berg, Gerard J, 1994. "The Effects of Changes of the Job Offer Arrival Rate on the Duration of Unemployment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(3), pages 478-498, July.
    20. Peter Dolton & Donal O'Neill, 2002. "The Long-Run Effects of Unemployment Monitoring and Work-Search Programs: Experimental Evidence from the United Kingdom," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 20(2), pages 381-403, Part.
    21. Michael A. Stoll & Steven Raphael, 2000. "Racial Differences in Spatial Job Search Patterns: Exploring the Causes and Consequences," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(3), pages 201-223, July.
    22. Bruce D. Meyer, 1995. "Lessons from the U.S. Unemployment Insurance Experiments," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 91-131, March.
    23. Coulson, N Edward & Laing, Derek & Wang, Ping, 2001. "Spatial Mismatch in Search Equilibrium," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(4), pages 949-972, October.
    24. Dolton, Peter & O'Neill, Donal, 1996. "Unemployment Duration and the Restart Effect: Some Experimental Evidence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(435), pages 387-400, March.
    25. John F. Kain, 1968. "Housing Segregation, Negro Employment, and Metropolitan Decentralization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 82(2), pages 175-197.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zenou, Yves, 2009. "Search in cities," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 607-624, August.
    2. Laurent Gobillon & Harris Selod & Yves Zenou, 2007. "The Mechanisms of Spatial Mismatch," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(12), pages 2401-2427, November.
    3. Zenou, Yves, 2009. "Urban search models under high-relocation costs. Theory and application to spatial mismatch," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(5), pages 534-546, October.
    4. Gautier, Pieter A. & Zenou, Yves, 2010. "Car ownership and the labor market of ethnic minorities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 392-403, May.
    5. Åslund, Olof & Blind, Ina & Dahlberg, Matz, 2017. "All aboard? Commuter train access and labor market outcomes," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 90-107.
    6. Zenou, Yves & Patacchini, Eleonora, 2003. "Mismatch, Transport Mode and Search Decisions in England," CEPR Discussion Papers 3968, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves, 2005. "Spatial mismatch, transport mode and search decisions in England," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 62-90, July.
    8. Olof Åslund & John Östh & Yves Zenou, 2010. "How important is access to jobs? Old question--improved answer," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 10(3), pages 389-422, May.
    9. Pieter Gautier & Paul Muller & Bas van der Klaauw & Michael Rosholm & Michael Svarer, 2018. "Estimating Equilibrium Effects of Job Search Assistance," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(4), pages 1073-1125.
    10. Judith K. Hellerstein & David Neumark, 2011. "Employment in Black Urban Labor Markets: Problems and Solutions," NBER Working Papers 16986, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Zenou, Yves, 2007. "High Relocation Costs in Search-Matching Models: Theory and Application to Spatial Mismatch," IZA Discussion Papers 2739, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Tito Boeri & Marta De Philippis & Eleonora Patacchini & Michele Pellizzari, 2015. "Immigration, Housing Discrimination and Employment," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(586), pages 82-114, August.
    13. Zenou, Yves, 2007. "Why do Black Workers Search Less? A Transport-Mode Based Theory," CEPR Discussion Papers 6155, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Anna Matas & Josep-Lluis Raymond & Josep-Lluis Roig, 2010. "Job Accessibility and Female Employment Probability: The Cases of Barcelona and Madrid," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(4), pages 769-787, April.
    15. Gobillon, Laurent & Rupert, Peter & Wasmer, Etienne, 2014. "Ethnic unemployment rates and frictional markets," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 108-120.
    16. Antonio Di Paolo & Anna Matas & Josep Lluís Raymond, 2017. "Job accessibility and job-education mismatch in the metropolitan area of Barcelona," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96, pages 91-112, March.
    17. van der Klaauw, Bas & Ziegler, Lennart, 2019. "A Field Experiment on Labor Market Speeddates for Unemployed Workers," CEPR Discussion Papers 13516, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Laurent Gobillon & Harris Selod, 2007. "The Effects of Segregation and Spatial Mismatch on Unemployment : Evidence from France," Working Papers 2007-04, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    19. Marchiori, Luca & Pascal, Julien & Pierrard, Olivier, 2023. "(In)efficient commuting and migration choices: Theory and policy in an urban search model," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    20. Picard, Pierre M. & Zenou, Yves, 2018. "Urban spatial structure, employment and social ties," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 77-93.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Search costs; Spatial mismatch; Public transit; Urban poverty;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
    • R4 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:29:y:2014:i:c:p:72-82. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/labeco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.