Public Transit and the Spatial Distribution of Minority Employment: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Harry J. Holzer (), John M. Quigley () and Steven Raphael
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Steven Raphael: Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley

No 1020, Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy, Working Paper Series from Berkeley Program on Housing and Urban Policy

Abstract: A recent expansion of the San Francisco Bay Area's heavy rail system represents an exogenous change in the accessibility of inner-city minority communities to a concentrated suburban employment center. We evaluate this natural experiment by conducting a two-wave longitudinal survey of firms, with the first wave of interviews immediately prior to the opening of service and the second wave approximately a year later. We compare within-firm changes in the propensity to hire minority workers for firms located near the station to those located further away, and we also estimate the effect of employer distance to the new stations on changes in propensity to hire minorities. Our results indicate a sizable increase in the hiring of minority workers, particularly Latinos, near the new stations.

New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-geo and nep-ure
Date: 2006-06-27
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