Job accessibility and welfare usage: Evidence from Los Angeles

Evelyn Blumenberg and Paul Ong
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Evelyn Blumenberg: School of Public Policy and Social Research, University of California, Los Angeles, Postal: School of Public Policy and Social Research, University of California, Los Angeles
Paul Ong: School of Public Policy and Social Research, University of California, Los Angeles, Postal: School of Public Policy and Social Research, University of California, Los Angeles

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1998, vol. 17, issue 4, 639-657

Abstract: Previous scholars have explored the effects of local labor market conditions on welfare usage. However, none of these studies use direct measures of geographic access to nearby jobs. Responding to this limitation, our research combines data from the 1990 census with three administrative data sets to examine the effect of geographic job access-defined as the relative supply of low-wage jobs located within a three-mile radius of a census tract-on welfare usage rates among the Los Angeles population with a high school degree or less. After controlling for other characteristics likely to affect welfare behavior, we find that welfare usage declines as geographic job access increases. This relationship holds not only among African-Americans, the subject of much of the scholarship on job access and economic opportunity, but also among whites, Asians, and Hispanics.

Date: 1998
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jpamgt:v:17:y:1998:i:4:p:639-657

DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6688(199823)17:4<639::AID-PAM3>3.0.CO;2-R

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