Corridors to Opportunity: A Case Study of Johannesburg, South Africa

Sammanfattning: Transport equity is a powerful tool in the alleviation of transport poverty and has been gaining traction in policy discussion. Transport equity refers to the distribution of the costs and benefits of transport and the degree to which that distribution is fair or appropriate. With that in mind, this paper explores the link between public transport access and labor market outcomes in the context of South Africa. Due to the history of racial segregation, a large portion of the black population live in urban peripheries, far away from economic opportunities. In this context, we use a synthetic control method, pioneered by Abadie and Gardeazabal (2003), to examine the effect of a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) intervention on overall and female unemployment. We find that there is a drop in unemployment that is correlated with treatment intensity, and while the average effects are not statistically significant at conventional levels, there are significant decreases in unemployment in selected years.