The effects of driver licensing laws on immigrant travel
Jesus M. Barajas
Transport Policy, 2021, vol. 105, issue C, 22-34
Abstract:
Car use is critical to improving access to opportunities, especially for low-wage immigrants whose jobs are dispersed and when transit service is minimal. But many states have restricted the ability of undocumented immigrants to obtain drivers licenses, making it potentially difficult for them to improve their economic standing. The effects of these laws have been tested for their association with traffic safety but not on mode choice itself. Using the two most recent versions of the National Household Travel Survey, I fit a series of difference-in-difference models to estimate the effect of permissive immigrant driver licensing on travel outcomes. Permissive licensing increased the rate of giving rides by about 13% and increased the rate of getting a ride by about 6.5%, but changes to driving alone were insignificant. Results suggest permissive licensing has beneficial accessibility impacts for all immigrants in addition to the positive safety and economic externalities documented elsewhere.
Keywords: Travel behavior; Transportation equity; Immigrants; Driver licensing; Carpooling; Difference-in-difference estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X21000494
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:trapol:v:105:y:2021:i:c:p:22-34
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
https://shop.elsevie ... _01_ooc_1&version=01
DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.02.010
Access Statistics for this article
Transport Policy is currently edited by Y. Hayashi
More articles in Transport Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().