A Proposal to Evaluate the Labor Market Consequences of an Extension of the San Francisco Bay Area's Commuter Rail System

该项目使用旧金山湾区快速交通系统的扩展作为一个自然实验，以测试几个关于城市劳动力市场空间错配的潜在机制的相互竞争的假说。1997年4月，该地区的通勤铁路系统将服务扩展到奥克兰主要大都市统计区东部环线沿线快速发展的郊区社区。这项服务扩展提供了一条直接的公共交通连接，连接以白人为主的都柏林与海沃德、圣莱安德罗和奥克兰等大型黑人、西班牙裔和亚洲社区，这些社区以前没有连接。最重要的是，服务扩展将把大都市地区失业率最高、收入最低的部分与就业率和收入大幅高于大都市地区平均水平的地区联系起来。对都柏林地区内和周围雇主的约谈将在新的都柏林站开通前一年和一年后立即进行。通过关于最近申请者和新雇员的种族构成和居住地的问题，以及关于技能要求、筛选、雇主寻找行为和其他公司特征的问题，基于公司的调查将被用来分析几个潜在的机制，这些机制经常被用来解释空间分割的劳动力市场。具体地说，申请率数据将用于测试市中心少数民族工人因公共交通服务延长而产生的供给侧反应。关于雇主招聘和寻找做法的问题将被用来分析公司对运输延期引起的供应方变化的反应和决定因素。将建立两组治疗组和对照组。在第一组中，位于都柏林的雇主的反应变化将与位于邻近郊区社区的雇主的反应变化进行比较。在第二组中，治疗将继续根据到新通勤铁路站的物理距离来定义。该项目将提供有关公共交通政策缓解市中心失业的能力的直接信息。鉴于最近联邦福利政策的变化，以及福利领取者不成比例地集中在美国中心城市，需要有关能够更好地整合城市和郊区劳动力市场的政策的信息。

This project uses an extension of the San Francisco Bay Area's rapid transit system as a natural experiment for testing several competing hypotheses concerning the underlying mechanisms of spatial mismatch in urban labor markets. In April of 1997, the area's commuter rail system extended services to a rapidly growing suburban community along the eastern ring of the Oakland Primary Metropolitan Statistical Area. The service extension provides a direct public transit link between the predominantly white city of Dublin and the large black, Hispanic, and Asian communities of Hayward, San Leandro and Oakland where a link did not exist previously. Most importantly, the service extension will connect the portion of the metropolitan area with the highest unemployment rate and lowest earnings to a region with employment rates and earnings that are substantially above the metropolitan area average. Interviews of employers within and around the Dublin area will be conducted immediately before and a year following the opening of the new Dublin Station. Through questions concerning the racial composition and area of residence of recent applicants and new hires, as well as questions concerning skill requirements, screening, employer search behavior, and other firm characteristics, the firm-based surveys will be used to analyze several of the underlying mechanisms that are often offered as explanation of spatially segmented labor markets. Specifically, application rate data will be used to test for supply side responses on the part of inner-city minority workers that result from the extension of public transit services. Questions concerning employer hiring and search practices will be used to analyze the firm responsiveness to and determinant of supply-side changes induced by the transportation extension. Two sets of treatment and control groups will be constructed. In the first set, changes in the responses of employers located in the city of Dublin will be compared to changes in the responses of employers located in neighboring suburban communities. In the second set, treatment will be defined continuously in terms of physical distance to the new commuter rail station. This project will provide direct information concerning the ability of public transportation policy to alleviate inner-city joblessness. Given recent changes in federal welfare policy and the disproportionate concentration of welfare recipients in U.S. central cities, information is needed concerning policy that can better integrate urban and suburban labor markets.