This study advances observed accessibility as a complement to traditional potential accessibility approaches, showing that access to jobs is shaped by employment subcenter-specific mechanisms that mediate who can obtain jobs in those locations. It examines the determinants of functional linkages between workers' places of residence and the three main employment subcenters in the Mexico City Metropolitan Zone: the Central Agglomeration, Santa Fe, and Naucalpan. The analysis uses secondary data on employment subcenters in 2019, a subsample of public transport commuting trips from the 2017 Origin-Destination Survey, and Spatial Autoregressive Combined (SAC) models. Findings reveal differentiated accessibility regimes for public transport commuters. The Central Agglomeration functions as an inclusive metropolitan hub, drawing commuters from across the region, with access not structured by distance but associated with integration into formal labor markets and public transport connectivity. Santa Fe emerges as a socially selective enclave, serving higher-income and more educated commuters. Naucalpan operates as a proximity-based industrial subcenter, attracting workers primarily from adjacent areas. The study makes four contributions to the job accessibility literature. First, it advances observed accessibility as a complement to potential accessibility, shifting the focus from jobs that are theoretically reachable to those that workers actually obtain. Second, it shows that accessibility operates through subcenter-specific regimes rather than as a metropolitan-wide condition. Third, it demonstrates that spatial mismatch varies across employment subcenters. Fourth, it shows that the benefits of public transport depend on the inclusiveness and labor market role of the destinations it connects.
David López-García (Fri,) studied this question.