The relevance of job accessibility to labour market outcomes: Evidence for the São Paulo metropolitan region

Abstract

Focusing on the case of the São Paulo Metropolitan Region, the largest urban centre in South America, this study provides evidence of the effect of job accessibility on three different labour market dimensions: participation, employment and informality. The evidence is obtained by combining information about household and employment locations and using a probit model together with an instrumental variable strategy. The results indicate that better job accessibility increases the probability of employment for both males and especially females, with employment probability elasticities of about 0.05% and 0.15%, respectively. In addition, we found that better access to jobs positively influences the probability of participation only for females. The set of evidence favours policies promoting higher residential density, transport infrastructure, and family support services.