Spatial mismatch, discrimination, and male youth employment in the Washington, DC area: Implications for residential mobility policies

Abstract

Residential mobility policies are in part premised on the assumption that place and not race explains blacks' joblessness in central cities. The article investigates the potential effects of residential mobility programs by analyzing a “natural” black residential mobility process in the Washington, DC area, where black suburbanization has coincided with suburban job growth. Using data from the 1990 Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), this article examines the relative contribution of place and race in explaining racial differences in employment for young men with a high school diploma or less. The results show that having a suburban residential location improves young males' spatial access to jobs, but that the employment benefits are greater for white than comparable black youth. Simulations point to racial discrimination in suburban labor markets being as important as having a suburban residential location as an explanation of white-black employment rate differences in the Washington, DC area. Thus, if residential mobility programs are to be fully effective in improving central city minorities' employment prospects, antidiscrimination enforcement efforts in suburban labor markets must be included in the policy package.© 1998 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management