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Concentration versus re-matching? Evidence about the locational effects of commuting costs

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  • Boehm, Michael J.

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.

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  • Boehm, Michael J., 2013. "Concentration versus re-matching? Evidence about the locational effects of commuting costs," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51542, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:51542
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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General

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