IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/trapol/v157y2024icp20-33.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Disentangling policy and structural effects on car-ownership for car-owning and carless US households during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Thakuriah, Piyushimita (Vonu)

Abstract

This research analyzed car-ownership in the US during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, by utilizing a nationally representative household survey spanning from January 2020 to March 2022. Using a multilevel Hurdle model with month and state random effects, vehicle ownership trends are separately modeled for car-owning and carless households within the same modeling framework, while accounting for endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity. An increase in the total amount of economic stimulus funding received increased the odds of vehicle ownership, while high car prices, high levels of housing expenditures, living in multi-family dwelling, and being from minority and low-skilled worker families negatively affected car-ownership. Greater household labor force participation, increases in household size and young persons in the household, living in states with high COVID caseloads and with moderately stringent Stay-at-Home social distancing mandates affected car-ownership propensities differently for car-owning and carless households. The significance of the research is that it disentangled pandemic-related and transportation policy variables from changes in household structure, living arrangements and employment-related characteristics. The analysis jointly considered how short-term pandemic-related influences as well as long-term demographic and occupational factors differently affect car-ownership for car-owning households and those without cars. Policy implications are drawn for consumer protection in the car ownership process, auto loan forbearance in future economic disruptions, strategies for public transportation which has continued to suffer from lower levels of use, and sustainability programs due to higher volumes of older used cars.

Suggested Citation

  • Thakuriah, Piyushimita (Vonu), 2024. "Disentangling policy and structural effects on car-ownership for car-owning and carless US households during and after the COVID-19 pandemic," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 20-33.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:157:y:2024:i:c:p:20-33
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2024.06.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X24001719
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tranpol.2024.06.008?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marsden, Greg & Docherty, Iain, 2013. "Insights on disruptions as opportunities for transport policy change," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 46-55.
    2. Kilian, Lutz & Zhou, Xiaoqing, 2022. "The impact of rising oil prices on U.S. inflation and inflation expectations in 2020–23," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    3. Basu, Rounaq & Ferreira, Joseph, 2021. "Sustainable mobility in auto-dominated Metro Boston: Challenges and opportunities post-COVID-19," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 197-210.
    4. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    5. Kenneth Gillingham & Tsvetan Tsvetanov, 2019. "Hurdles and steps: Estimating demand for solar photovoltaics," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 10(1), pages 275-310, January.
    6. Mullahy, John, 1986. "Specification and testing of some modified count data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 341-365, December.
    7. Jonathan A. Parker & Jake Schild & Laura Erhard & David S. Johnson, 2021. "Household Spending Responses to the Economic Impact Payments of 2020: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey," Economic Working Papers 544, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    8. Gamber, William & Graham, James & Yadav, Anirudh, 2023. "Stuck at home: Housing demand during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(PB).
    9. Cindy Xin Feng, 2021. "A comparison of zero-inflated and hurdle models for modeling zero-inflated count data," Journal of Statistical Distributions and Applications, Springer, vol. 8(1), pages 1-19, December.
    10. Nazneen Ferdous & Abdul Pinjari & Chandra Bhat & Ram Pendyala, 2010. "A comprehensive analysis of household transportation expenditures relative to other goods and services: an application to United States consumer expenditure data," Transportation, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 363-390, May.
    11. Ayres, Ian & Siegelman, Peter, 1995. "Race and Gender Discrimination in Bargaining for a New Car," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(3), pages 304-321, June.
    12. Luyu Liu & Harvey J Miller & Jonathan Scheff, 2020. "The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on public transit demand in the United States," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-22, November.
    13. de Palma, André & Vosough, Shaghayegh & Liao, Feixiong, 2022. "An overview of effects of COVID-19 on mobility and lifestyle: 18 months since the outbreak," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 372-397.
    14. Dargay, Joyce M, 2001. "The effect of income on car ownership: evidence of asymmetry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 807-821, November.
    15. Grigoli, Francesco & Koczan, Zsoka & Topalova, Petia, 2018. "Drivers of Labor Force Participation in Advanced Economies: Macro and Micro Evidence," GLO Discussion Paper Series 265, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    16. Yang, Hongtai & Zhai, Guocong & Liu, Xiaohan & Yang, Linchuan & Liu, Yugang & Yuan, Quan, 2022. "Determinants of city-level private car ownership: Effect of vehicle regulation policies and the relative price," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 40-48.
    17. Parker, Madeleine E.G. & Li, Meiqing & Bouzaghrane, Mohamed Amine & Obeid, Hassan & Hayes, Drake & Frick, Karen Trapenberg & Rodríguez, Daniel A. & Sengupta, Raja & Walker, Joan & Chatman, Daniel G., 2021. "Public transit use in the United States in the era of COVID-19: Transit riders’ travel behavior in the COVID-19 impact and recovery period," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 53-62.
    18. Joanna Moody & Elizabeth Farr & Marisa Papagelis & David R. Keith, 2021. "The value of car ownership and use in the United States," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 4(9), pages 769-774, September.
    19. Hensher, David A. & Wei, Edward & Beck, MatthewJ. & Balbontin, Camila, 2021. "The impact of COVID-19 on cost outlays for car and public transport commuting - The case of the Greater Sydney Metropolitan Area after three months of restrictions," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 71-80.
    20. Xinba Li & Chuanrong Zhang, 2021. "Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis Affect Housing Prices Evenly in the U.S.?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-28, November.
    21. Thakuriah (Vonu), Piyushimita & Persky, Joseph & Soot, Siim & Sriraj, P.S., 2013. "Costs and benefits of employment transportation for low-wage workers: An assessment of job access public transportation services," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 31-42.
    22. Brett A. Mccully & Karen M. Pence & Daniel J. Vine, 2019. "How Much Are Car Purchases Driven by Home Equity Withdrawal?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 51(5), pages 1403-1426, August.
    23. Paul M. Ong, 2002. "Car ownership and welfare-to-work," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 239-252.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Karimi, Sina & Samadzad, Mahdi & Lesteven, Gaele, 2024. "Navigating public transport during a pandemic: Key lessons on travel behavior and social equity from two surveys in Tehran," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    2. Xi, Haoning & Li, Qin & Hensher, David A. & Nelson, John D. & Ho, Chinh, 2023. "Quantifying the impact of COVID-19 on travel behavior in different socio-economic segments," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 98-112.
    3. Chen, Ruoyu & Zhang, Min & Zhou, Jiangping, 2023. "Jobs-housing relationships before and amid COVID-19: An excess-commuting approach," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    4. Vega-Gonzalo, Maria & Gomez, Juan & Christidis, Panayotis, 2023. "How has COVID-19 changed private car use in European urban areas? An analysis of the effect of socio-economic characteristics and mobility habits," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    5. Blumenberg, Evelyn & Siddiq, Fariba & Speroni, Samuel & Wasserman, Jacob L., 2024. "Driving A-loan: Automobile debt, neighborhood race, and the COVID-19 pandemic," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 321-330.
    6. Ulf‐ G. Gerdtham, 1997. "Equity in Health Care Utilization: Further Tests Based on Hurdle Models and Swedish Micro Data," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 6(3), pages 303-319, May.
    7. Gautier, Pieter A. & Zenou, Yves, 2010. "Car ownership and the labor market of ethnic minorities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 392-403, May.
    8. Busch-Geertsema, Annika & Lanzendorf, Martin, 2017. "From university to work life – Jumping behind the wheel? Explaining mode change of students making the transition to professional life," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 181-196.
    9. Tian Wu & Hongmei Zhao & Xunmin Ou, 2014. "Vehicle Ownership Analysis Based on GDP per Capita in China: 1963–2050," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(8), pages 1-23, August.
    10. Silm, Siiri & Tominga, Ago & Saidla, Karl & Poom, Age & Tammaru, Tiit, 2024. "Socio-economic and residential differences in urban modality styles based on a long-term smartphone experiment," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    11. Majo, M.C., 2010. "A microeconometric analysis of health care utilization in Europe," Other publications TiSEM 1cf5fd2f-8146-4ef8-8eb5-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    12. Welch, Timothy F., 2013. "Equity in transport: The distribution of transit access and connectivity among affordable housing units," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 283-293.
    13. Camila Pareja Yale & Hugo Tsugunobu Yoshida Yoshizaki & Luiz Paulo Fávero, 2022. "A New Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial Multilevel Model for Forecasting the Demand of Disaster Relief Supplies in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(22), pages 1-11, November.
    14. Matthew Palm & Jeff Allen & Yixue Zhang & Ignacio Tiznado-Aitken & Brice Batomen & Steven Farber & Michael Widener, 2024. "Facing the future of transit ridership: shifting attitudes towards public transit and auto ownership among transit riders during COVID-19," Transportation, Springer, vol. 51(2), pages 645-671, April.
    15. Xiaodi Xie, 1997. "Children and female labour supply behaviour," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(10), pages 1303-1310.
    16. Wojciech Kazimierz Szczepanek & Maciej Kruszyna, 2022. "The Impact of COVID-19 on the Choice of Transport Means in Journeys to Work Based on the Selected Example from Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-9, June.
    17. Nie, Qifan & Qian, Xinwu & Guo, Shuocheng & Jones, Steven & Doustmohammadi, Mehrnaz & Anderson, Michael D., 2022. "Impact of COVID-19 on paratransit operators and riders: A case study of central Alabama," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 48-67.
    18. Harris, Mark N. & Zhao, Xueyan, 2007. "A zero-inflated ordered probit model, with an application to modelling tobacco consumption," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 1073-1099, December.
    19. Müggenburg, Hannah & Busch-Geertsema, Annika & Lanzendorf, Martin, 2015. "Mobility biographies: A review of achievements and challenges of the mobility biographies approach and a framework for further research," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 151-163.
    20. Bagdatli, Muhammed Emin Cihangir & Ipek, Fatima, 2022. "Transport mode preferences of university students in post-COVID-19 pandemic," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 20-32.

    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:eee:trapol:v:157:y:2024:i:c:p:20-33. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/30473/description#description .

    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.