published as 'The Mechanisms of Spatial Mismatch ' in: Urban Studies, 2007, 44 (12), 2401-2427
Since the 1950s, there has been a steady decentralization of entry-level jobs towards the
suburbs of American cities, while racial minorities —and particularly blacks— have remained
in city centers. In this context, the spatial mismatch hypothesis argues that because the
residential locations of minorities are disconnected from suburban job opportunities, lowskilled
minorities residing in inner cities face adverse labor market outcomes. However, the
reason why distance to jobs may be harmful to minorities has long remained unclear while
the abundant but essentially empirical literature on spatial mismatch has led to much
controversy. The present work presents the main stylized facts associated with spatial
mismatch and reviews the main theoretical models that started to emerge in the late 1990s.
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