Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/295913 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 16890
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We estimate female and male workers' marginal willingness to pay to reduce commuting distance in Germany, using a partial-equilibrium model of job search with non-wage job attributes. Commuting costs have implications not just for congestion policy, spatial planning and transport infrastructure provision, but are also relevant to our understanding of gender differences in labour market biographies. For estimation, we use a stratified partial likelihood model on a large administrative dataset for West Germany to flexibly account for both unobserved individual heterogeneity and changes dependent on wages and children. We find that an average female childless worker is willing to give up daily €0.27 per kilometre (0.4% of the daily wage) to reduce commuting distance at the margin. The average men's marginal willingness to pay is similar to childless women's over a large range of wages. However, women's marginal willingness to pay more than doubles after the birth of a child contributing substantially to the motherhood wage gap. A married mixed-sex couple's sample indicates that husbands try to avoid commuting shorter distances than their wives.
Subjects: 
commuting
marginal willingness to pay for job attributes
on-the-job search
Cox relative risk model
partial likelihood estimation
gender and parenthood in job search models
heterogeneity in job mobility
gender wage gap
JEL: 
C41
J13
J16
J31
J62
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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