Welfare reform and spatial matching between clients and jobs

The recent Welfare Reform Act requires several categories of public assistance recipients to transition to the work force. In most metropolitan areas public assistance clients reside great distances from areas of entry-level jobs. Any program designed to provide access to these jobs, for those previously on public aid, needs relevant transportation services when the job search process begins. Therefore it is essential that the latent demand for commuting among public aid clients be assessed in developing public transportation services. The location of entry-level jobs must also be known or, as in this article, estimated using numerous data sources. This article reports on such a demand estimation effort, focusing primarily on the use of Regional Science methods.