Connecting Disadvantaged Communities to Work and Higher Education Opportunities: Evidence from Public Transportation Penetration to Arab Towns in Israel

Aamer Abu-Qarn () and Shirlee Lichtman-Sadot

No 12824, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Disadvantaged communities are often geographically segregated from employment and higher education opportunities. Increasing access can entail substantial welfare gains, but this can also affect the tradeoff faced by young adults between investing in higher education and working for pay. We evaluate the introduction of bus services to Arab towns in Israel, which substantially and differentially increased access either to work only or to work and higher education opportunities among a disadvantaged population. Exploiting the variation that different bus line connections created in the opportunity cost of schooling, we find that young adult responses are consistent with a tradeoff between investing in higher education and working for pay. For females, under certain circumstances, there is a simultaneous decrease in both labor market and educational attainment outcomes. We argue that this is due to a combination of a household income effect and social stigma that is associated with female labor force participation. Our results demonstrate the importance of accounting for potential reductions in educational attainment when expanding work opportunities to disadvantaged communities and that traditional barriers can play a large role in female integration into the labor market.

Keywords: higher education; spatial mismatch; public transportation; opportunity cost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I24 I25 J22 J61 O18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2019-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ara, nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: CONNECTING DISADVANTAGED COMMUNITIES TO WORK AND HIGHER EDUCATION OPPORTUITIES: EVIDENCE FROM PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION PENETRATION TO ARAB TOWNS IN ISRAEL (2020)
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