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Concentration Versus Re-Matching? Evidence About the Locational Effects of Commuting Costs

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  • Michael J. Boehm

Abstract

Using administrative employer-employee data from Germany, I exploit two reductions of tax breaks for commuting in 2003/4 and 2006/7 to estimate commuting costs' effect on the decision to switch job and move house. Standard theory predicts that higher commuting costs should lead to increased concentration in urban centers. However, I find that re-matching of existing jobs and houses to reduce commuting distances is much more prevalent in the data. With these estimates I calculate the effect of a complete abolition of the tax breaks on overall travel distance, fuel usage, greenhouse gas emissions, the tax base, and the de-population of the countryside.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael J. Boehm, 2013. "Concentration Versus Re-Matching? Evidence About the Locational Effects of Commuting Costs," CEP Discussion Papers dp1207, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1207
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    Cited by:

    1. Ina Blind & Matz Dahlberg & Gustav Engström & John Östh, 2018. "Construction of Register-based Commuting Measures," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 64(2), pages 292-326.
    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. Paetzold, Jörg, 2019. "Do commuting subsidies increase commuting distances? Evidence from a Regression Kink Design," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 136-147.
    4. Heuermann, Daniel F. & Assmann, Franziska & vom Berge, Philipp & Freund, Florian, 2017. "The distributional effect of commuting subsidies - Evidence from geo-referenced data and a large-scale policy reform," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 11-24.
    5. Francesca Carta & Marta De Philippis, 2015. "You've come a long way, baby. Effects of commuting times on couples' labour supply," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 1003, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    6. Dauth, Wolfgang & Haller, Peter, 2016. "The valuation of changes in commuting distances: an analysis using georeferenced data," IAB-Discussion Paper 201643, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Work/residence location choice; commuting costs; environmental effects of tax policy; employer-employee data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J68 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Public Policy
    • Q48 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Government Policy
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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