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You've come a long way, baby. Husbands' commuting time and family labour supply

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  • Carta, Francesca
  • De Philippis, Marta

Abstract

This paper explores the effects of husbands’ commuting time on wives’ employment and family time allocation. We develop a unitary family model, and we show that when market services are imperfect substitutes of home produced goods, a longer husband’s commuting time might decrease his wife’s employment and increase his own working hours. We estimate these effects using employer-induced changes in home-to-work distances. We find that a 1% increase in the husband’s commuting distance reduces his wife’s employment probability by 0.016 percentage points and has a slight positive effect on his own working hours. The effects are stronger for couples with children and for highly educated husbands.

Suggested Citation

  • Carta, Francesca & De Philippis, Marta, 2018. "You've come a long way, baby. Husbands' commuting time and family labour supply," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 25-37.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:69:y:2018:i:c:p:25-37
    DOI: 10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2017.12.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Georg Hirte & Ulrike Illmann, 2019. "Household decision making on commuting and the commuting paradox," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 63-101, February.
    3. A. Amarender Reddy & Surabhi Mittal & Namrata Singha Roy & Sanghamitra Kanjilal-Bhaduri, 2021. "Time Allocation between Paid and Unpaid Work among Men and Women: An Empirical Study of Indian Villages," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-17, March.
    4. Concetta Rondinelli & Roberta Zizza, 2020. "Spend today or spend tomorrow? The role of inflation expectations in consumer behaviour," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1276, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    5. Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto & Velilla, Jorge, 2018. "Commuting Time and Sick-Day Absence of US Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 11700, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto & Velilla, Jorge, 2023. "Pro-environment Attitudes and Worker Commuting Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 16279, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. KONDO Keisuke, 2020. "A Structural Estimation of the Disutility of Commuting," Discussion papers 20031, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. Tao, Yinhua & van Ham, Maarten & Petrović, Ana & Ta, Na, 2023. "A household perspective on the commuting paradox: Longitudinal relationships between commuting time and subjective wellbeing for couples in China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    9. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2018. "Long Commuting Time and the Benefits of Telecommuting," Discussion papers 18025, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    10. Dauth, Wolfgang & Haller, Peter, 2020. "Is there loss aversion in the trade-off between wages and commuting distances?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    11. Giménez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto & Velilla, Jorge, 2020. "Commuting and self-employment in Western Europe," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household production; Gender economics; Time allocation and labour supply; Commuting time;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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