New subject: CB Center for Economic Studies Discussion papers fromResearch Data Centers

20 Jun 2007

As some of you know, we (the transportation data community) have not had much success
using the CB's Research Data Center program that is housed at the Center for Economic
Studies. We attempted to use the RDC to examine early ACS results.   The RDCs provide
researchers with access to confidential microdata and go through careful review before
results are released to ensure that no confidential data are released.  

While glancing at the CES RDC website today, I noticed that several "discussion
papers"  over the past few years (2005 through current) have included analysis using
the 1990 and 2000 decennial census "long form" data to examine patterns of
home-to-work.  2004 ACS data are included on the list of available data at the RDC. 
Typically, these analyses focus on "labor market outcomes."  

http://www.ces.census.gov/index.php/ces/1.00/cmshome

Here are a few that I found: 

Hellerstein, Judith K;  David Neumark; and Melissa McInerney. "Spatial Mismatch or
Racial Mismatch? "  CES 07-16.  June 2007. 

Job density  and employment rates are compared between black and white population (no
break-out for "Hispanic"),  The authors use the term "racial mismatch"
to mean a "lack of jobs into which blacks are hired,"  in contrast to
"spatial mismatch" that  argues that jobs are not located near to where people
live contributing to lack of employment. They found that space alone plays a relatively
minor role in low black male employment rates. They find that jobs that are
"available to blacks" is more important, especially for workers with lower
education.    

Wang, Qingfang "How does Geography Matter in Ethnic Labor Market Segmentation
Process?  A Case Study of Chinese in the San Francisco CMSA"  CES-WP-07-09  March
2007

The authors defined Chinese residence and workplace concentrations in the San Francisco
Bay area.  They found clear market segmentation by gender and job skill among the Chinese
immigrants.  They assert that the housing market is limited for immigrant ethnic
minorities, but that ethnic social networking will influence employment and therefore job
location, beyond commute time considerations.  The pattern for Chinese immigrant men and
women is very different, with men in skilled computer and electronics jobs, and women in
lower skilled factory and assembly line jobs.  

Bayer, Patrick; Stephen L. Ross, and Giorgio Topa. "Place of Work and Place of
Residence:  Informal Hiring Networks and Labor Market Outcomes."  CES 05-23  October
2005. 

The 1990 Census "long form" data was used to measure social interaction by
comparing the propensity of individuals living in the same vs. nearby blocks to work in
the same location.  They found that residing on the same block increased the probability
of working together by over 33 percent.  When the characteristics of persons (age,
education and presence of children) matched, these interactions were even stronger.  

Fu, Shine.  "Smart Café Cities:  Testing Human Capital Externalities in the Boston
Metropolitan Area."  CES 05-24 October 2005.

"Human Capital Externalities"  or "knowledge spillover" are benefits
that accrue to workers from being close to a dense skilled labor market.  Most work done
on these externalities have been at the macro-scale of metropolitan areas.  This effort
examines microgeographic scale of externalities by using census tracts, block groups and
blocks.  This paper used the 1990 Census long form data using worker and job
characteristics and job location.  They found that these benefits are very localized
within microgeographic scales.  

So, the good news is that other people besides the transportation community have benefited
from the detailed PLACE OF WORK  geocoding in the Decennial Census "long form." 
What can we learn from this? To get projects approved in the CES RDC system, we would
probably have better luck if we discussed our research in terms of economic productivity
and labor market benefits, rather than benefiting transportation planning.  Also, we can
expect that researchers on labor market outcomes will want to use ACS results on place of
work in the future.  

Elaine Murakami

CB Center for Economic Studies Discussion papers from Research Data Centers