内城区的区位特征与低收入者的就业可达性

Location Characteristics of Inner-city Neighborhoods and Employment Accessibility of Low-wage Workers

城市失业空间特征的研究通常以测度就业可达性为基础,但现行的测度方法则往往过于简单化。本论文提出一种较优的可达性测度方法,从而使研究者一方面能把就业竞争考虑在内,另一方面能区分地理位置和交通模式对测度结果的影响。作者用这种改进了的方法来研究居住在波士顿内城区低收入劳动者的就业可达性。主要数据来源是1990年美国人口普查和波士顿都市区通勤时间矩阵。研究结果清楚地表明,尽管内城区的中心位置依然给居住在该区的低收入劳动者带来地理区位优势,但是机动车拥有状况却是可达性的主要决定因素。因为,大部分住在内城区的低收入者都不拥有私人汽车,所以他们的空间机动性有限,其结果是他们的就业可达性普遍低。

Studies that examine spatial characteristics of urban unemployment are often based on some simplistic measures of employment accessibility. This paper presents a refined methodological framework for measuring accessibility, which enables the researcher to （ I ） improve the measurement by accounting for job competition among workers commuting by different modes and （2） understand the outcome more thoroughly by distinguishing the effect of location from that of workers＇ auto ownership. This refined framework is applied to a case study of employment accessibility of low-wage workers living in Boston＇s inner-city neighborhoods, using primarily 1990 Census demographic and journey-to-work data. The empirical results show clearly that although the central location of inner-city residence still gives the low-wage workers some advantage, auto ownership is the more important determinant. Low-wage workers living in inner-city neighborhoods on average do not have high employment accessibility because a large percentage of them do not own any motor vehicle and, hence, have limited spatial mobility. Implications of the findings are discussed and qualified in light of the limitation of the research.