IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jregsc/v64y2024i3p866-895.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Working from home, commuting time, and intracity house‐price gradients

Author

Listed:
  • Jinwon Kim
  • Dede Long

Abstract

The popularity of working from home (WFH) in the US has surged over the past two decades, with the COVID‐19 pandemic further accelerating this trend. We hypothesize that WFH not only reduces the frequency of physical commutes but also lowers the time cost of commutes due to decreased urban congestion levels; both factors would flatten house‐price gradients. Analyzing big data from Google Maps on travel time in California, we first confirm that COVID‐19, as a WFH‐boosting shock, induced larger decreases in morning travel time in cities with a higher WFH potential. We then empirically validate the effect of WFH on house‐price gradients, channeled through its impact on commuting time; this effect explains 20% of the total WFH‐induced flattening of house‐price gradients during the pandemic in California.

Suggested Citation

  • Jinwon Kim & Dede Long, 2024. "Working from home, commuting time, and intracity house‐price gradients," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(3), pages 866-895, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jregsc:v:64:y:2024:i:3:p:866-895
    DOI: 10.1111/jors.12693
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jors.12693
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jors.12693?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jregsc:v:64:y:2024:i:3:p:866-895. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-4146 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.