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

这个项目使用了一个扩展的旧金山弗朗西斯科湾区的快速交通系统作为一个自然的实验，测试几个相互竞争的假设，在城市劳动力市场的空间不匹配的基本机制。 1997年4月，该地区的通勤铁路系统将服务延伸到奥克兰主要大都市统计区东环沿线沿着迅速发展的郊区社区。 服务延伸提供了一个直接的公共交通连接之间的主要白城的都柏林和大型黑人，西班牙裔和亚洲社区的海沃德，圣莱安德罗和奥克兰，其中一个链接以前不存在。 最重要的是，服务延伸将把失业率最高、收入最低的大都市地区与就业率和收入大大高于大都市地区平均水平的地区连接起来。 在新的都柏林车站开通之前和之后的一年，将对都柏林地区内和周围的雇主进行面试。 通过对最近的申请人和新雇员的种族构成和居住地区的问题，以及对技能要求，筛选，雇主搜索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，往往是作为空间分割的劳动力市场的解释。 具体而言，应用率数据将被用来测试供应方的反应，对部分城市内的少数民族工人，导致公共交通服务的扩展。 有关雇主招聘和招聘实践的问题将用于分析公司对运输延伸引起的供给侧变化的反应和决定因素。 将构建两组处理组和对照组。 在第一组中，位于都柏林市的雇主的响应变化将与位于邻近郊区社区的雇主的响应变化进行比较。在第二组中，治疗将根据到新通勤铁路站的物理距离连续定义。 该项目将提供有关公共交通政策减轻市中心失业的能力的直接信息。考虑到最近联邦福利政策的变化和美国中心城市福利领取者的不成比例的集中，需要关于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.