ABSTRACT

The role of transport in providing access to employment has received considerable attention. Since transport policies may be motivated by assumed effects on employment probability outcomes, it is important to establish the nature of the relationship between transport and employment outcomes. While the majority of the empirical evidence suggests a positive association, it is not conclusive or consistent and often shows mixed results. To address this confusion, our study has systematically reviewed this evidence base and synthesised it through meta-analysis. We first identified 93 studies that quantitatively assessed the impact of transport on employment outcomes. By systematically merging the empirical evidence, this study establishes a positive association between transport and employment outcomes, with varying effects for four identified categories of transport measures (or combinations thereof): car ownership, public transport access, commute times, and job accessibility levels. This positive association persists in studies that control for endogeneity between transport and employment, but a larger evidence base is needed to establish a more robust relationship, in particular for cities and smaller (rural) areas outside the US-context and with regard to public transport. We then selected 20 methodologically comparable studies for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Our meta-regression models clearly demonstrate that car ownership significantly increases individual employment probabilities, in particular among welfare recipients. Young drivers benefit from access to household cars when these are not in use by their parents, and they are more sensitive to the time and cost implications of longer commutes. While our systematic review suggests that better access to public transport and higher levels of job accessibility increases employment probabilities, meta-regression analysis requires more consistent transport measures. The findings in this study are important for policymakers in that they imply that job seekers may benefit from public policies targeted at improving their access to public transport, in particular for people without access to cars and in areas with fewer job opportunities.

摘要

运输在提供就业机会方面的作用已受到相当多的关注。由于运输政策可能受到对就业概率结果的假定影响的激励，因此重要的是确定运输与就业结果之间关系的性质。尽管大多数经验证据都表明存在正相关关系，但它不是结论性或一致的，而且往往显示出不同的结果。为了解决这种混乱，我们的研究系统地回顾了这一证据基础，并通过荟萃分析对其进行了综合。我们首先确定了93项研究，这些研究定量评估了交通运输对就业成果的影响。通过系统地合并经验证据，本研究建立了运输与就业结果之间的正相关关系，对于四种确定的交通措施类别（或其组合）有不同的影响：汽车拥有量，公共交通便利，通勤时间和工作可及性水平。这种积极的联系在控制运输和就业之间的内生性的研究中一直存在，但是需要更大的证据基础才能建立更稳固的关系，尤其是对于美国境外的城市和较小（农村）地区以及公共交通。然后，我们选择了20项方法学可比的研究纳入荟萃分析。我们的元回归模型清楚地表明，拥有汽车显着增加了个人的就业概率，尤其是在福利接受者中。年轻的驾驶员在父母不使用家用汽车时会从中受益，而且他们对通勤时间和成本的影响更为敏感。尽管我们的系统评价表明，更好地使用公共交通和更高水平的工作可及性会增加就业机会，但元回归分析需要更一致的交通措施。这项研究的发现对政策制定者很重要，因为它们暗示求职者可能会受益于旨在改善公共交通的公共政策，特别是对于那些无车通行且工作机会较少的地区的人们。