IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v125y2019icp268-279.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The relationship between transport disadvantage and employability: Predicting long-term unemployment based on job seekers’ access to suitable job openings in Flanders, Belgium

Author

Listed:
  • Fransen, Koos
  • Boussauw, Kobe
  • Deruyter, Greta
  • De Maeyer, Philippe

Abstract

In no research domain has the application of accessibility been so vital as in the area of linking disadvantaged individuals to job opportunities. The inability to reach locations of employment and, therefore, partake in paid labor is considered to have severe consequences on an individual’s economic security and quality of life as well as society’s general level of welfare. Unfortunately, existing studies on job accessibility primarily apply aggregate measures that aim to link the population group of active, employed workers to pre-existing job locations. As a result, they fail to capture the person-specific labor-market opportunities for those individuals who are actually unemployed as well as the degree to which accessibility to opportunities is related to actual employment rates. The proposed paper answers this limitation by constructing a predictive model for long-term unemployment for job seekers in Flanders, Belgium, dependent on their access by private and public transport to job openings that correspond to their individual preferences and competences. In addition to accessibility, the predictive capacity was determined for various socio-demographics such as age, gender, migration background, educational background and preferred job type. The proposed regression model shows that job accessibility is negatively related to long-term unemployment. In addition, various inequities in long-term unemployment exist for the selected case study. Especially job seekers with a migration background and with higher age (55 years or older) have significantly higher probabilities of remaining unemployed. A conditional inference regression tree indicates that the most disadvantaged groups have a two to three times higher probability of being long-term unemployed. Moreover, higher accessibility levels prove to only benefit those who already are in a more advantaged position. These findings have important ramifications for policies focusing on improving employment rates, as they allow to specifically address those areas of research where major gains can be made.

Suggested Citation

  • Fransen, Koos & Boussauw, Kobe & Deruyter, Greta & De Maeyer, Philippe, 2019. "The relationship between transport disadvantage and employability: Predicting long-term unemployment based on job seekers’ access to suitable job openings in Flanders, Belgium," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 268-279.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:125:y:2019:i:c:p:268-279
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2018.01.023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856417307140
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2018.01.023?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. Calvo-Armengol, Antoni & Zenou, Yves, 2005. "Job matching, social network and word-of-mouth communication," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(3), pages 500-522, May.
    2. Grengs, Joe, 2010. "Job accessibility and the modal mismatch in Detroit," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 42-54.
    3. Anthony E. Smith & Yves Zenou, 2003. "A Discrete-Time Stochastic Model of Job Matching," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 6(1), pages 54-79, January.
    4. Lauren M. Scott, 2000. "Evaluating Intra-metropolitan Accessibility in the Information Age: Operational Issues, Objectives, and Implementation," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Donald G. Janelle & David C. Hodge (ed.), Information, Place, and Cyberspace, chapter 3, pages 21-45, Springer.
    5. Ronald W. McQuaid & Colin Lindsay, 2005. "The Concept of Employability," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(2), pages 197-219, February.
    6. Cheng, Jianquan & Bertolini, Luca, 2013. "Measuring urban job accessibility with distance decay, competition and diversity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 100-109.
    7. Karolien De Bruyne & Jan Van Hove, 2013. "Explaining the spatial variation in housing prices: an economic geography approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(13), pages 1673-1689, May.
    8. Víctor Cantillo & Juan de Dios Ortúzar & Huw C. W. L. Williams, 2007. "Modeling Discrete Choices in the Presence of Inertia and Serial Correlation," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 41(2), pages 195-205, May.
    9. Shengyi Gao & Patricia Mokhtarian & Robert Johnston, 2008. "Exploring the connections among job accessibility, employment, income, and auto ownership using structural equation modeling," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 42(2), pages 341-356, June.
    10. Andrew Clark, 2005. "What Makes a Good Job? Evidence from OECD Countries," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Stephen Bazen & Claudio Lucifora & Wiemer Salverda (ed.), Job Quality and Employer Behaviour, chapter 1, pages 11-30, Palgrave Macmillan.
    11. Patricia L. Mokhtarian & Michael N. Bagley, 2002. "The impact of residential neighborhood type on travel behavior: A structural equations modeling approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 36(2), pages 279-297.
    12. Emre Korsu & Sandrine Wenglenski, 2010. "Job Accessibility, Residential Segregation and Risk of Long-term Unemployment in the Paris Region," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 47(11), pages 2279-2324, October.
    13. Owen, Andrew & Levinson, David M., 2015. "Modeling the commute mode share of transit using continuous accessibility to jobs," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 110-122.
    14. Mizuki Kawabata, 2003. "Job Access and Employment among Low-Skilled Autoless Workers in US Metropolitan Areas," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 35(9), pages 1651-1668, September.
    15. Sonja Drobnič & Barbara Beham & Patrick Präg, 2010. "Good Job, Good Life? Working Conditions and Quality of Life in Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 99(2), pages 205-225, November.
    16. 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.
    17. Matas, Anna & Raymond, José-Luis & Roig, José-Luis, 2009. "Car ownership and access to jobs in Spain," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 607-617, July.
    18. 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.
    19. John Östh, 2011. "Introducing a Method for the Computation of Doubly Constrained Accessibility Models in Larger Datasets," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 581-620, December.
    20. Kobe Boussauw & Georges Allaert & Frank Witlox, 2013. "Colouring Inside What Lines? Interference of the Urban Growth Boundary and the Political--Administrative Border of Brussels," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(10), pages 1509-1527, October.
    21. Evelyn Blumenberg & Paul Ong, 1998. "Job accessibility and welfare usage: Evidence from Los Angeles," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 17(4), pages 639-657.
    22. Qing Shen & Thomas Sanchez, 2005. "Residential location, transportation, and welfare‐to‐work in the United States: A case study of Milwaukee," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3-4), pages 393-431.
    23. Daniel Baldwin Hess, 2005. "Access to Employment for Adults in Poverty in the Buffalo-Niagara Region," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(7), pages 1177-1200, June.
    24. Gurley, Tami & Bruce, Donald, 2005. "The effects of car access on employment outcomes for welfare recipients," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 250-272, September.
    25. Bert van Wee, 2009. "Self‐Selection: A Key to a Better Understanding of Location Choices, Travel Behaviour and Transport Externalities?," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 279-292, January.
    26. Michiel van Meeteren & Kobe Boussauw & Ben Derudder & Frank Witlox, 2016. "Flemish Diamond or ABC-Axis? The spatial structure of the Belgian metropolitan area," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 974-995, May.
    27. Donald G. Janelle & David C. Hodge, 2000. "Information, Place, Cyberspace, and Accessibility," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Donald G. Janelle & David C. Hodge (ed.), Information, Place, and Cyberspace, chapter 1, pages 3-11, Springer.
    28. Mathieu Van Criekingen, 2009. "Moving In/Out of Brussels' Historical Core in the Early 2000s: Migration and the Effects of Gentrification," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(4), pages 825-848, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhaowen Liu & Martin de Jong & Fen Li & Nikki Brand & Marcel Hertogh & Liang Dong, 2020. "Towards Developing a New Model for Inclusive Cities in China—The Case of Xiong’an New Area," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-24, July.
    2. Kębłowski, Wojciech & Dobruszkes, Frédéric & Boussauw, Kobe, 2022. "Moving past sustainable transport studies: Towards a critical perspective on urban transport," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 74-83.
    3. Rajesh Gupta & Vaibhav Bhamoriya, 2021. "‘Give Me Some Rail’: An Enquiry into Puzzle of Declining Female Labour Force Participation Rate," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 46(1), pages 7-23, February.
    4. Allen, Jeff & Higgins, Christopher D. & Silver, Daniel & Farber, Steven, 2023. "Are low-income residents disproportionately moving away from transit?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    5. Wojciech Keblowski & Frédéric Dobruszkes & Kobe Boussauw, 2022. "Moving past sustainable transport studies: Towards a critical perspective on urban transport," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/341191, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    6. Kelobonye, Keone & Zhou, Heng & McCarney, Gary & Xia, Jianhong (Cecilia), 2020. "Measuring the accessibility and spatial equity of urban services under competition using the cumulative opportunities measure," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

    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. Merlin, Louis A. & Hu, Lingqian, 2017. "Does competition matter in measures of job accessibility? Explaining employment in Los Angeles," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 77-88.
    2. Lingqian Hu, 2017. "Job accessibility and employment outcomes: which income groups benefit the most?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(6), pages 1421-1443, November.
    3. Antonio Di Paolo & Anna Matas & Josep Lluís Raymond, 2014. "Job accessibility, employment and job-education mismatch in the metropolitan area of Barcelona," Working Papers XREAP2014-05, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised May 2014.
    4. Zhu, Le & Shi, Fei, 2022. "Spatial and social inequalities of job accessibility in Kunshan city, China: Application of the Amap API and mobile phone signaling data," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    5. Xiao, Weiye & Wei, Yehua Dennis & Wan, Neng, 2021. "Modeling job accessibility using online map data: An extended two-step floating catchment area method with multiple travel modes," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    6. Cheng, Jianquan & Bertolini, Luca, 2013. "Measuring urban job accessibility with distance decay, competition and diversity," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 100-109.
    7. 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.
    8. Huang, Ruihong, 2020. "Transit-based job accessibility and urban spatial structure," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    9. 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.
    10. Yan, Xiang & Bejleri, Ilir & Zhai, Liang, 2022. "A spatiotemporal analysis of transit accessibility to low-wage jobs in Miami-Dade County," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    11. Guzman, Luis A. & Oviedo, Daniel & Rivera, Carlos, 2017. "Assessing equity in transport accessibility to work and study: The Bogotá region," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 236-246.
    12. Jeroen Bastiaanssen & Daniel Johnson & Karen Lucas, 2022. "Does better job accessibility help people gain employment? The role of public transport in Great Britain," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(2), pages 301-322, February.
    13. Boisjoly, Geneviève & Serra, Bernardo & Oliveira, Gabriel T. & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2020. "Accessibility measurements in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba and Recife, Brazil," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    14. Jangik Jin & Kurt Paulsen, 2018. "Does accessibility matter? Understanding the effect of job accessibility on labour market outcomes," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(1), pages 91-115, January.
    15. 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.
    16. Farber, Steven & Páez, Antonio, 2009. "My car, my friends, and me: a preliminary analysis of automobility and social activity participation," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 216-225.
    17. Boisjoly, Geneviève & Moreno-Monroy, Ana Isabel & El-Geneidy, Ahmed, 2017. "Informality and accessibility to jobs by public transit: Evidence from the São Paulo Metropolitan Region," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 89-96.
    18. Kim, Sung Hoo & Mokhtarian, Patricia L., 2018. "Taste heterogeneity as an alternative form of endogeneity bias: Investigating the attitude-moderated effects of built environment and socio-demographics on vehicle ownership using latent class modelin," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 130-150.
    19. Miwa Matsuo & Hiroyuki Iseki, 2020. "Giving up Job Search Because I Don't Have a Car: Labor Market Participation and Employment Status Among Single Mothers With and Without Cars," Discussion Paper Series DP2020-07, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    20. Louafi Bouzouina & Nathalie Havet & Pascal Pochet, 2015. "Mobilité quotidienne des actifs résidant en zones urbaines sensibles et accès à l'emploi : Une analyse économétrique à partir de l'Enquête Ménages Déplacements de Lyon," Working Papers halshs-01143900, HAL.

    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:transa:v:125:y:2019:i:c:p:268-279. 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/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    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.