Volume 31, Number 1 (Winter) 1996
O'Regan, Katherine M., and John M. Quigley. 1996. "Teenage Employment and the Spatial Isolation of Minority and Poverty Households." Journal of Human Resources 31(3):692-702.
This
paper tests the importance of the spatial isolation of minority and poverty households for youth
employment in large metropolitan areas. We estimate a model relating youth employment probabilities
to individual and family characteristics, race, and metropolitan location. We then investigate the
determinants of the systematic differences in employment probabilities by race and metropolitan
area. A substantial fraction of differences in youth employment can be attributed to the isolation
of minorities and poor households. Minority youth residing in more segregated cities or cities in
which minorities have less contact with nonpoor households have lower employment probabilities than
otherwise comparable youth. Simulations suggest that these spatial effects explain a substantial
fraction of the existing differences in youth employment rates by race.
Katherine M. O’Regan is an associate professor of economics at Yale University and John M. Quigley is a professor of economics and public policy at Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley. The paper benefited from the insightful comments of George Galster and from the research assistance of Christian Redfearn. Access to the 1990 Census data was greatly facilitated by Daniel Weinberg. Financial support was provided by the Transportation Center and the Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, University of California, Berkeley. An extended version of this paper is available as Department of Economics Working Paper 95-239. University of California. Berkeley. The data for 1980 may be obtained from Katherine O’Regan, Yale School of Management, New Haven, CT 06520. The data for 1990 are on file at the U.S. Bureau of the Census. They can be made available to sworn employees through Daniel Weinberg, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington. DC 20233-3212.
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