Poverty and the Role of Public Transportation

Abstract

This paper, published in 2008 and featured in the Journal of Urban Economics, was authored by Edward Glaeser, Matthew Kahn, and Jordan Rappaport and investigates the influence of access to public transportation on the urbanization of poverty. The authors sought to explain why the poor tend to populate dense cities within metropolitan areas versus the surrounding suburbs. Through the use of statistical regression and selected data from surveys and censuses the authors were able to prove with statistical significance that, while not the only factor, access to public transportation is the primary reason for central city poverty. The goal of the research was to develop a theory of urban centralization that should explain the separation of the poor and non-poor, and why given this relationship the poor choose to live in the center of cities.