IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa11p389.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Knowledge-workers and the sustainable city: the travel consequences of car-related job-perks

Author

Listed:
  • Edward Bendit
  • Amnon Frenkel
  • Sigal Kaplan

Abstract

Attracting firms in knowledge and technology intensive (KTI) sectors is highly desired at both the national and the regional level as a powerful engine of economic growth. Due to fierce competition in KTI sectors and national taxation policies, KTI firms often attract high-quality employees by offering car-related job perks as additional incentives to wage. In Canada, car allowance is offered by 46% of the employers to attract highly-skilled workers. In Israel, 61% of knowledge-workers in the KTI sectors receive a company-car with respect to 16% of workers in other sectors. In the U.K., car-related job perks are offered by 18% of the employers. This study focuses on the impact of car-related job-perks on the travel behavior of knowledge-workers. The importance of this issue derives from the impact of the travel behavior of knowledge-workers on congested transportation networks in metropolitan areas, as knowledge-based economy tends to concentrate mainly in metropolitan regions. This study applies discrete choice models in order to analyze the impact of company-cars and car allowances (reimbursement of fuel and parking expenses) on commute and leisure travel of knowledge-workers. The analyzed data consist of 750 observations, retrieved from a revealed-preferences survey among KTI workers who work and reside in the Tel-Aviv metropolitan area in Israel. Results show that car-related job perks are associated with (i) high annual mileage, (ii) high propensity of using the car as main commute mode, (ii) long commute distances and travel times, (iii) high trip chaining frequency in commuting trips, and (iii) high frequency of long-distance weekend leisure trips. Result also show that KTI workers generally prefer the car or non-motorized transport modes over the bus system. These results suggest that the development of sustainable knowledge-based cities should consider (i) the replacement of car-related job perks by other incentives, (ii) the provision of pedestrian and cyclist friendly infrastructures, and (iii) public transport improvements.

Suggested Citation

  • Edward Bendit & Amnon Frenkel & Sigal Kaplan, 2011. "Knowledge-workers and the sustainable city: the travel consequences of car-related job-perks," ERSA conference papers ersa11p389, European Regional Science Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p389
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa11/e110830aFinal00389.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andreas P. Cornett, 2009. "Aims and strategies in regional innovation and growth policy: A Danish perspective," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 399-420, July.
    2. Olof Johansson-Stenman, 2002. "Estimating individual driving distance by car and public transport use in Sweden," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(8), pages 959-967.
    3. Otto Raspe & Frank Van Oort, 2006. "The Knowledge Economy and Urban Economic Growth," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(9), pages 1209-1234, May.
    4. Robert Kaiser, 2003. "Multi-level Science Policy and Regional Innovation: The Case of the Munich Cluster for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(7), pages 841-857, October.
    5. Galit Cohen-Blankshtain, 2008. "Institutional constraints on transport policymaking: the case of company cars in Israel," Transportation, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 411-424, May.
    6. Colombo, Massimo G. & Delmastro, Marco, 2002. "How effective are technology incubators?: Evidence from Italy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 1103-1122, September.
    7. Otto Raspe & Frank Oort, 2011. "Growth of new firms and spatially bounded knowledge externalities," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 46(3), pages 495-518, June.
    8. Dafna Schwartz, 2006. "The Regional Location of Knowledge Based Economy Activities in Israel," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 31-44, January.
    9. Graus, Wina & Worrell, Ernst, 2008. "The principal-agent problem and transport energy use: Case study of company lease cars in the Netherlands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 3745-3753, October.
    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. Macharis, Cathy & De Witte, Astrid, 2012. "The typical company car user does not exist: The case of Flemish company car drivers," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 91-98.
    2. Wang, Zhaoxing & He, Qile & Xia, Senmao & Sarpong, David & Xiong, Ailun & Maas, Gideon, 2020. "Capacities of business incubator and regional innovation performance," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    3. Copenhagen Economics, 2010. "Company Car Taxation," Taxation Papers 22, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.
    4. Amnon Frenkel & Edward Benedit & Sigal Kaplan, 2011. "Residential choice of knowledge-workers in a 'startup metropolis': the role of amenities, workplace and lifestyle," ERSA conference papers ersa11p208, European Regional Science Association.
    5. Philip Cooke & Dafna Schwartz, 2008. "Regional Knowledge Economies: An Eu‐Uk And Israel Perspective," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 99(2), pages 178-192, April.
    6. Miguel Gómez-Antonio & Stuart Sweeney, 2021. "Testing the role of intra-metropolitan local factors on knowledge-intensive industries’ location choices," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 66(3), pages 699-728, June.
    7. González-Uribe, Juanita & Reyes, Santiago, 2021. "Identifying and boosting “Gazelles”: Evidence from business accelerators," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 260-287.
    8. Christina Theodoraki & Karim Messeghem & Mark P. Rice, 2018. "A social capital approach to the development of sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems: an explorative study," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 153-170, June.
    9. Alberto Albahari & Magnus Klofsten & Juan Carlos Rubio-Romero, 2019. "Science and Technology Parks: a study of value creation for park tenants," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 1256-1272, August.
    10. Arbia, Giuseppe & Espa, Giuseppe & Giuliani, Diego & Dickson, Maria Michela, 2014. "Spatio-temporal clustering in the pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing industry: A geographical micro-level analysis," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 298-304.
    11. Luca Grilli, 2005. "Internet start-ups access to the bank loan market: evidence from Italy," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 293-305.
    12. Marina van Geenhuizen & Danny P. Soetanto & Victor Scholten, 2012. "Science Parks: Changing Roles and Changing Approaches in their Evaluation," Chapters, in: Marina van Geenhuizen & Peter Nijkamp (ed.), Creative Knowledge Cities, chapter 6, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    13. Duschl, Matthias & Schimke, Antje & Brenner, Thomas & Luxen, Dennis, 2011. "Firm growth and the spatial impact of geolocated external factors: Empirical evidence for German manufacturing firms," Working Paper Series in Economics 36, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Department of Economics and Management.
    14. O. V. Kuznetsova & R. O. Bobrovsky, 2022. "Location of the Largest Pharmaceutical Companies in Russia: Contribution to Regional Divergence or Convergence?," Regional Research of Russia, Springer, vol. 12(2), pages 124-132, June.
    15. Laura Lecluyse & Mirjam Knockaert & André Spithoven, 2019. "The contribution of science parks: a literature review and future research agenda," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 559-595, April.
    16. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin, 2010. "The Aims and Scope of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Danny Soetanto & Sarah L. Jack, 2018. "Slack resources, exploratory and exploitative innovation and the performance of small technology-based firms at incubators," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(5), pages 1213-1231, October.
    18. Manuel Octavio Del Campo Villares & Vanessa Miguéns-Refojo & Francisco Jesús Ferreiro-Seoane, 2020. "Business Survival and the Influence of Innovation on Entrepreneurs in Business Incubators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-20, July.
    19. Yuan-Chieh Chang & Ming-Huei Chen & Yuan-Po Lin & Yu-Shiang Gao, 2012. "Measuring Regional Innovation and Entrepreneurship Capabilities," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 3(2), pages 90-108, June.
    20. Elisa Salvador, 2011. "How effective are research spin-off firms in Italy?," Revue d'économie industrielle, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(1), pages 99-122.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa11p389. 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: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ersa.org .

    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.