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Measuring Commuting and Economic Activity inside Cities with Cell Phone Records

Author

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  • Gabriel E. Kreindler
  • Yuhei Miyauchi

Abstract

We show how to use commuting flows to infer the spatial distribution of income within a city. A simple workplace choice model predicts a gravity equation for commuting flows whose destination fixed effects correspond to wages. We implement this method with cell phone transaction data from Dhaka and Colombo. Model-predicted income predicts separate income data, at the workplace and residential level, and by skill group. Unlike machine learning approaches, our method does not require training data, yet achieves comparable predictive power. We show that hartals (transportation strikes) in Dhaka reduce commuting more for high model-predicted wage and high-skill commuters.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriel E. Kreindler & Yuhei Miyauchi, 2021. "Measuring Commuting and Economic Activity inside Cities with Cell Phone Records," NBER Working Papers 28516, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28516
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    Cited by:

    1. Saiz, Albert & Salazar-Miranda, Arianna, 2023. "Understanding Urban Economies, Land Use, and Social Dynamics in the City: Big Data and Measurement," IZA Discussion Papers 16501, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Gal Amedi, 2023. "The Determinants of the Transit Accessibility Premium," Bank of Israel Working Papers 2023.12, Bank of Israel.
    3. Barzin,Samira & Avner,Paolo & Maruyama Rentschler,Jun Erik & O’Clery,Neave, 2022. "Where Are All the Jobs ? A Machine Learning Approach for High Resolution Urban Employment Prediction inDeveloping Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9979, The World Bank.
    4. Paul Blanchard & Douglas Gollin & Martina Kirchberger, 2023. "Perpetual Motion: High-Frequency Human Mobility in Three African Countries," Trinity Economics Papers tep0823, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    5. Simon Franklin & Clément Imbert & Girum Abebe & Carolina Mejia-Mantilla, 2024. "Urban Public Works in Spatial Equilibrium: Experimental Evidence from Ethiopia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 114(5), pages 1382-1414, May.
    6. Daniel Straulino & Juan C. Saldarriaga & Jairo A. G'omez & Juan C. Duque & Neave O'Clery, 2021. "Uncovering commercial activity in informal cities," Papers 2104.04545, arXiv.org.
    7. Eugenia Go & Kentaro Nakajima & Yasuyuki Sawada & Kiyoshi Taniguchi, 2023. "Satellite-Based Vehicle Flow Data to Assess Local Economic Activities," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-1209, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    8. Li, Teng & Barwick, Panle Jia & Deng, Yongheng & Huang, Xinfei & Li, Shanjun, 2023. "The COVID-19 pandemic and unemployment: Evidence from mobile phone data from China," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    9. Florian Gunsilius & David Van Dijcke, 2023. "Free Discontinuity Regression: With an Application to the Economic Effects of Internet Shutdowns," Papers 2309.14630, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2024.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C55 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Large Data Sets: Modeling and Analysis
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns

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