Fernandez Roberto M
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 50 Memorial Drive E52-537, Cambridge, MA 2142, USA.
Soc Sci Res. 2008 Sep;37(3):953-75. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2008.03.006.
One of the most prominent explanations for minority underachievement in the labor market is what has been termed the spatial mismatch hypothesis. The original formulation of the hypothesis by John Kain focused on the effects of racially segregated housing on workers' labor market outcomes assuming race-neutral employers. This paper reports the results of a case study designed to test Kain's original conception of this important hypothesis within the context of a longitudinal analysis of a relocating food processing plant. Because the workers in this study did not choose the firm's new location, the relocation can be treated as an exogenous, demand-side shock to the local labor market. This natural experiment design solves the major problem of extant approaches to the theory, i.e., the selective migration of minorities to areas with high concentrations of jobs. The study design also eliminates the confounding factor of non-race-neutral employers using space as a means to discriminate against minorities since the circumstances of this move make us confident that the firm is not moving for racial motives. We find support in favor of Kain's version of the spatial mismatch hypothesis. Despite the firm's best intentions and work to minimize the impact of the spatial disruption caused by the relocation, the racial segregation of the area's housing market hampered minorities' adjustments to the relocation. Consistent with Kain's formulation, spatially discriminating employers are not needed to produce race differences in job accessibility; racially segregated housing markets alone can generate such outcomes.
劳动力市场中少数族裔成就较低的最突出解释之一是所谓的空间错配假说。约翰·凯恩最初提出该假说时，聚焦于种族隔离住房对工人劳动力市场结果的影响，假设雇主不存在种族偏见。本文报告了一项案例研究的结果，该研究旨在通过对一家搬迁的食品加工厂进行纵向分析，来检验凯恩对这一重要假说的最初构想。由于本研究中的工人并未选择公司的新址，此次搬迁可被视为对当地劳动力市场的一种外生的、需求侧冲击。这种自然实验设计解决了现有理论研究方法的主要问题，即少数族裔选择性迁移到就业高度集中地区的问题。该研究设计还消除了非种族中立雇主利用空间歧视少数族裔这一混杂因素，因为此次搬迁的情况让我们确信公司并非出于种族动机而搬迁。我们发现有证据支持凯恩版本的空间错配假说。尽管公司出于善意并努力将搬迁造成的空间干扰影响降至最低，但该地区住房市场的种族隔离阻碍了少数族裔对搬迁的适应。与凯恩的构想一致，并不需要存在空间歧视的雇主来造成就业可达性方面的种族差异；仅种族隔离的住房市场就能产生这样的结果。
