Full Citation

Title: Driver’s License Reforms and Job Accessibility among Undocumented Immigrants

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2019

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Abstract: I analyze how allowing undocumented immigrants to legally obtain driver’s licenses shifts commuting patterns, increases job accessibility, and improves labor market outcomes. Using state- and nativity-level variation in reforms, I show that granting driving privileges to undocumented immigrants increases vehicle ownership and the probability of car commute by 2.5 percentage points. This improvement in accessibility leads to a 0.8 percentage point increase in the employment rate for undocumented immigrants. The effects of license reforms on the undocumented are larger in low-accessibility localities, which are more rural and entail longer commuting times, particularly for undocumented workers. Undocumented immigrants exhibit stronger positive employments effects in more car-dependent occupations, shifting away from less car-dependent occupations. These findings highlight the quantitative importance of transportation barriers in determining the labor market outcomes of minority workers.

Url: http://heepyungcho.web.illinois.edu/docs/license.pdf

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Authors: Cho, Heepyung

Publisher: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS Time Use - ATUS

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Migration and Immigration

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