Spatial Mismatch outside of Large Urban Areas: An Analysis of Welfare Recipients in Fresno County, California

Abstract

Numerous scholars assert that welfare recipients face a mismatch between their residential locations in inner-city or rural areas and employment opportunities located in the suburbs far from where they live. However, the authors' findings bring into question the wholesale application of the spatial mismatch hypothesis to all welfare recipients. Welfare recipients in mid-sized cities such as Fresno, California, do not face spatial barriers to employment as they live in compact areas where distances between residential and employment locations are relatively short. In contrast, job access is important in the nonurbanized areas of Fresno County where welfare recipients who live in job-rich neighborhoods are more likely to be employed than are recipients who are dispersed throughout more isolated, nonurbanized areas.