IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v55y2018i1p91-115.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does accessibility matter? Understanding the effect of job accessibility on labour market outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Jangik Jin

    (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)

  • Kurt Paulsen

    (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA)

Abstract

In this study, we examine the effect of access to employment opportunities on labour market outcomes, especially focusing on unemployment rates and household income in the Chicago metropolitan area during 2000–2010. Using accessibility measures derived from detailed employment data, we calculate job accessibility by race and income. In order to deal with the endogeneity problem, we employ instrumental variables with a generalised spatial two-stage least square (GS2SLS) model with fixed-effects. Our findings suggest that job accessibility plays a significant role in explaining unemployment rates and household income. Consistent with Kain’s spatial mismatch hypothesis, increases in job accessibility for African Americans lead to decreases in unemployment. Results also show that increased job accessibility for low-income households not only reduce unemployment but also improve household income.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:55:y:2018:i:1:p:91-115
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098016684099
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098016684099
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098016684099?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Offner & Daniel H. Saks, 1971. "A Note on John Kain's "Housing Segregation, Negro Employment and Metropolitan Decentralization"," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 85(1), pages 147-160.
    2. Grengs, Joe, 2010. "Job accessibility and the modal mismatch in Detroit," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 42-54.
    3. Shukla, Vibhooti & Waddell, Paul, 1991. "Firm location and land use in discrete urban space : A study of the spatial structure of Dallas-Fort worth," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 225-253, July.
    4. Kurt Paulsen, 2012. "The evolution of suburban relative housing-unit diversity," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(3), pages 407-433, February.
    5. Richard Arnott, 1998. "Economic Theory and the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(7), pages 1171-1185, June.
    6. Donald S. Houston, 2005. "Methods to Test the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 81(4), pages 407-434, October.
    7. Giuliano, Genevieve & Small, Kenneth A., 1991. "Subcenters in the Los Angeles region," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 163-182, July.
    8. Neil Bania & Laura Leete & Claudia Coulton, 2008. "Job Access, Employment and Earnings: Outcomes for Welfare Leavers in a US Urban Labour Market," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(11), pages 2179-2202, October.
    9. Stuart S. Rosenthal & William C. Strange, 2003. "Geography, Industrial Organization, and Agglomeration," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(2), pages 377-393, May.
    10. Giuliano, Genevieve & Small, Kenneth A., 1999. "The Determinants of Growth of Employment Subcenters," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt06n534j0, University of California Transportation Center.
    11. Daniel P. McMillen, 2003. "Employment subcenters in Chicago: past, present, and future," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 27(Q II), pages 2-14.
    12. Hellerstein, Judith K. & Neumark, David & McInerney, Melissa, 2008. "Spatial mismatch or racial mismatch?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 464-479, September.
    13. Lingqian Hu, 2015. "Job Accessibility of the Poor in Los Angeles," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 81(1), pages 30-45, January.
    14. David T. Ellwood, 1986. "The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: Are There Teenage Jobs Missing in the Ghetto?," NBER Chapters, in: The Black Youth Employment Crisis, pages 147-190, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. 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.
    16. McMillen, Daniel P. & McDonald, John F., 1998. "Suburban Subcenters and Employment Density in Metropolitan Chicago," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 157-180, March.
    17. Ong, Paul M. & Houston, Douglas, 2002. "Transit, Employment and Women on Welfare," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt3287s046, University of California Transportation Center.
    18. David M. Drukker & Ingmar Prucha & Rafal Raciborski, 2013. "Maximum likelihood and generalized spatial two-stage least-squares estimators for a spatial-autoregressive model with spatial-autoregressive disturbances," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 13(2), pages 221-241, June.
    19. Raphael, Steven, 1998. "The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis and Black Youth Joblessness: Evidence from the San Francisco Bay Area," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 79-111, January.
    20. 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.
    21. McMillen, Daniel P., 2001. "Nonparametric Employment Subcenter Identification," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 448-473, November.
    22. 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.
    23. Richard B. Freeman & Harry J. Holzer, 1986. "The Black Youth Employment Crisis," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number free86-1, March.
    24. David M. Drukker & Peter Egger & Ingmar R. Prucha, 2013. "On Two-Step Estimation of a Spatial Autoregressive Model with Autoregressive Disturbances and Endogenous Regressors," Econometric Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(5-6), pages 686-733, August.
    25. David H. Autor, 2011. "The polarization of job opportunities in the U.S. labor market: implications for employment and earnings," Community Investments, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, vol. 23(Fall), pages 11-1640-41.
    26. Keith Ihlanfeldt, 1992. "Job Accessibility and the Employment and School Enrollment of Teenagers," Books from Upjohn Press, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, number jaes, August.
    27. Harry J. Holzer, 1991. "The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: What Has the Evidence Shown?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 28(1), pages 105-122, February.
    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. Danya Kim & Jangik Jin, 2019. "The Effect of Land Use on Housing Price and Rent: Empirical Evidence of Job Accessibility and Mixed Land Use," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-18, February.
    2. Kim, Junghwan & Lee, Bumsoo, 2019. "More than travel time: New accessibility index capturing the connectivity of transit services," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 8-18.

    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Laurent Gobillon & Harris Selod & Yves Zenou, 2002. "Spatial Mismatch : From the Hypothesis of the Theories," Working Papers 2002-57, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    4. Gary Painter & Cathy Yang Liu & Duan Zhuang, 2007. "Immigrants and the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: Employment Outcomes among Immigrant Youth in Los Angeles," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(13), pages 2627-2649, December.
    5. Lingqian Hu, 2017. "Job accessibility and employment outcomes: which income groups benefit the most?," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(6), pages 1421-1443, November.
    6. Liping Wang & Cifang Wu & Songnian Zhao, 2022. "A Review of Spatial Mismatch Research: Empirical Debate, Theoretical Evolution and Connotation Expansion," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-16, July.
    7. Neumark, David & Simpson, Helen, 2015. "Place-Based Policies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 1197-1287, Elsevier.
    8. Valerie Preston & Sara McLafferty, 1999. "articles: Spatial mismatch research in the 1990s: progress and potential," Papers in Regional Science, Springer;Regional Science Association International, vol. 78(4), pages 387-402.
    9. Judith K. Hellerstein & Melissa Mcinerney & David Neumark, 2010. "Spatial Mismatch, Immigrant Networks, and Hispanic Employment in the United States," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 99-100, pages 141-167.
    10. Hyunjoo Eom, 2022. "Does Job Accessibility Matter in the Suburbs? Black Suburbia, Job Accessibility, and Employment Outcomes," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-21, November.
    11. Frederic Gilli, 2009. "Sprawl or Reagglomeration? The Dynamics of Employment Deconcentration and Industrial Transformation in Greater Paris," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(7), pages 1385-1420, June.
    12. 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.
    13. Justin Tyndall, 2017. "Waiting for the R train: Public transportation and employment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(2), pages 520-537, February.
    14. Jaume Masip Tresserra, 2012. "Identifying the Employment and Population Centers at regional and metropolitan scale: The Case of Catalonia and Barcelona," ERSA conference papers ersa12p70, European Regional Science Association.
    15. Hellerstein, Judith K. & Neumark, David & McInerney, Melissa, 2008. "Spatial mismatch or racial mismatch?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 464-479, September.
    16. Huang, Ruihong, 2020. "Transit-based job accessibility and urban spatial structure," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    17. Weinberg, Bruce A., 2000. "Black Residential Centralization and the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 110-134, July.
    18. 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.
    19. Hu, Lingqian & Schneider, Robert J., 2017. "Different ways to get to the same workplace: How does workplace location relate to commuting by different income groups?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 106-115.
    20. Weinberg, Bruce A., 2004. "Testing the spatial mismatch hypothesis using inter-city variations in industrial composition," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 505-532, September.

    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:sae:urbstu:v:55:y:2018:i:1:p:91-115. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.