Race, Segregation, and Postal Employment: New Evidence on Spatial Mismatch / Leah Platt Boustan, Robert A. Margo.

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Boustan, Leah Platt

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TextSeries: Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) ; no. w13462.Publication details: Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2007.Description: 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white)Subject(s):

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Abstract: The spatial mismatch hypothesis posits that employment decentralization isolated urban blacks from work opportunities. This paper focuses on one large employer that has remained in the central city over the twentieth century - the U.S. Postal Service. We find that blacks substitute towards postal work as other employment opportunities leave the city circa 1960. The response is particularly strong in segregated areas, where black neighborhoods are clustered near the central business district. Furthermore, this pattern only holds for non-mail carriers, many of whom work in central processing facilities. More recently, the relationship between black postal employment and segregation has declined, suggesting that spatial mismatch has become less important over time.

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Previous	nber w1346 What Promises Are Worth: The Impact of Affirmative Action Goals /	nber w13460 Social Networks and Access to Health Care Among Mexican-Americans /	nber w13461 Family Structure and the Treatment of Childhood Asthma /	nber w13462 Race, Segregation, and Postal Employment: New Evidence on Spatial Mismatch /	nber w13463 Trade Shocks and Labor Adjustment: Theory /	nber w13464 Some Simple Analytics of Trade and Labor Mobility /	nber w13465 Trade Shocks and Labor Adjustment: A Structural Empirical Approach /	Next

October 2007.

The spatial mismatch hypothesis posits that employment decentralization isolated urban blacks from work opportunities. This paper focuses on one large employer that has remained in the central city over the twentieth century - the U.S. Postal Service. We find that blacks substitute towards postal work as other employment opportunities leave the city circa 1960. The response is particularly strong in segregated areas, where black neighborhoods are clustered near the central business district. Furthermore, this pattern only holds for non-mail carriers, many of whom work in central processing facilities. More recently, the relationship between black postal employment and segregation has declined, suggesting that spatial mismatch has become less important over time.