Spatial job search, spatial mismatch, and the employment and wages of racial and ethnic groups in Los Angeles

This article examines racial/ethnic differences in geographic job search be havior and the differential effects that this search has on groups' employm ent and wages in Los Angeles. Using data from the 1994 Los Angeles Survey o f Urban Inequality (LASUI), the results indicate that, controlling for rele vant characteristics, blacks, and on certain dimensions Latinos, extensivel y spatial job search to a greater degree than whites as measured by the num ber of areas searched. Moreover, this extensive spatial job is found to pos itively affect the employment of blacks and the wages of Latinos. Simulatio ns show that increasing blacks' and Latinos' access to cars or decreasing t heir average distance to search areas will lead to greater geographic job s earch. In turn, this greater extensive spatial job search will lead to grea ter employment and wages for these groups, respectively. However, the gains in blacks' employment from increased extensive spatial job search are smal l in magnitude. These results are consistent with spatial mismatch. (C) 199 9 Academic Press.