Transportation as a Stimulus of Welfare-to-Work

Using a rich panel of data on welfare recipients in Alameda County, California, this article examines the importance of transportation policy variables in explaining the ability of some individuals to find gainful employment. A multinomial logit model predicts the probability that someone found a job as a function of car ownership, transit service quality, regional job accessibility by different transportation modes, human-capital factors, and various control variables. Results show that car ownership and educational attainment significantly increased the odds that someone switched from welfare to work, while transit service quality variables were largely insignificant. Nor was regional accessibility important in explaining employment outcomes, a finding that casts doubt on the spatial mismatch hypothesis. Concentration of housing near bus and rail routes appeared most important in stimulating employment. However, improved automobility had far stronger effects on employment outcomes than improvements in transit mobility.