Racial differences in residential and job mobility: Evidence concerning the spatial mismatch hypothesis

The spatial mismatch hypothesis asserts that job decentralization adversely impacts the labor market outcomes of African Americans. This paper tests whether lace and job access have an independent effect on the probability of a joint residential move and job change, No evidence is fund to indicate that race directly influences the joint probability. The paper finds, however that poor job access has an independent negative effect on the probability of a joint residential move and job change. Because African-American residences are heavily concentrated in American central cities, these results suggest that African-American workers may not be able io fully adjust as new jobs are created in the suburbs. (C) 1998 Academic Press.