IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/transp/v48y2021i2d10.1007_s11116-020-10080-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What drives the gap? Applying the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method to examine generational differences in transportation-related attitudes

Author

Listed:
  • Ali Etezady

    (Georgia Institute of Technology)

  • F. Atiyya Shaw

    (Georgia Institute of Technology)

  • Patricia L. Mokhtarian

    (Georgia Institute of Technology)

  • Giovanni Circella

    (Georgia Institute of Technology
    University of California, Davis)

Abstract

Considerable recent work suggests that Millennials’ behaviors may be converging with those of Generation X as they enter later life stages, but few have investigated whether attitudes, which are often strong predictors of behavior, are undergoing the same convergence. In this study, we analyze the existing generational gap in four transportation-related attitudes (currently pro-urban, long-term pro-urban, pro-car ownership, and pro-environment), and examine the differential effects of other characteristics, including life-stage variables, on these attitudinal gaps. We apply the threefold Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method to a statewide (weighted) sample of 1029 Millennials and 946 Generation Xers from California to unravel these effects. The method distinguishes among: (1) effects due to the cohorts having different characteristics (endowments); (2) effects due to those characteristics having different influences on attitudes (coefficients); and (3) the interaction of those two effects. We observe that Millennials’ attitudes: (1) differ from those of Generation X only by small, albeit statistically significant, amounts on average; and (2) are closer to those of Generation X as they gain on a host of life-stage variables such as marital status, income, and education. For example, if Millennials were married, employed, and earning higher incomes at the same rates as Generation X (but retaining their own model coefficients), the generational gap in the currently pro-urban attitude would be reduced by 24%. This study brings an econometric approach to the study of generational divides in transportation-related attitudes, with findings suggesting that Millennials might be leaving part of their uniqueness behind as they enter later life stages.

Suggested Citation

  • Ali Etezady & F. Atiyya Shaw & Patricia L. Mokhtarian & Giovanni Circella, 2021. "What drives the gap? Applying the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method to examine generational differences in transportation-related attitudes," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 857-883, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:transp:v:48:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s11116-020-10080-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11116-020-10080-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11116-020-10080-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11116-020-10080-5?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. Reid Ewing & Robert Cervero, 2010. "Travel and the Built Environment," Journal of the American Planning Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 76(3), pages 265-294.
    2. Dowell Myers, 2016. "Peak Millennials: Three Reinforcing Cycles That Amplify the Rise and Fall of Urban Concentration by Millennials," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(6), pages 928-947, November.
    3. Fan, Yingling & Guthrie, Andrew & Levinson, David, 2016. "Waiting time perceptions at transit stops and stations: Effects of basic amenities, gender, and security," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 251-264.
    4. Venu M. Garikapati & Ram M. Pendyala & Eric A. Morris & Patricia L. Mokhtarian & Noreen McDonald, 2016. "Activity patterns, time use, and travel of millennials: a generation in transition?," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(5), pages 558-584, September.
    5. Mokhtarian, Patricia L. & Salomon, Ilan, 1997. "Modeling the Desire to Telecommute: The Importance of Attitudinal Factors in Behavioral Models," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt29z267km, University of California Transportation Center.
    6. Braumoeller, Bear F., 2004. "Hypothesis Testing and Multiplicative Interaction Terms," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(4), pages 807-820, October.
    7. Thigpen, Calvin & Handy, Susan, 2018. "Driver's licensing delay: A retrospective case study of the impact of attitudes, parental and social influences, and intergenerational differences," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 24-40.
    8. Ben Jann, 2008. "The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition for linear regression models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 8(4), pages 453-479, December.
    9. Oaxaca, Ronald, 1973. "Male-Female Wage Differentials in Urban Labor Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 14(3), pages 693-709, October.
    10. Tobias Kuhnimhof & Jimmy Armoogum & Ralph Buehler & Joyce Dargay & Jon Martin Denstadli & Toshiyuki Yamamoto, 2012. "Men Shape a Downward Trend in Car Use among Young Adults—Evidence from Six Industrialized Countries," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 761-779, September.
    11. Delbosc, Alexa & Nakanishi, Hitomi, 2017. "A life course perspective on the travel of Australian millennials," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 319-336.
    12. Circella, Giovanni & Tiedeman, Kate & Handy, Susan & Alemi, Farzad & Mokhtarian, Patricia, 2016. "What Affects Millennials’ Mobility? Part I: Investigating the Environmental Concerns, Lifestyles, Mobility-Related Attitudes and Adoption of Technology of Young Adults in California," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt6wm51523, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    13. Yongsung Lee & Giovanni Circella & Patricia L. Mokhtarian & Subhrajit Guhathakurta, 0. "Are millennials more multimodal? A latent-class cluster analysis with attitudes and preferences among millennial and Generation X commuters in California," Transportation, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-24.
    14. Alan S. Blinder, 1973. "Wage Discrimination: Reduced Form and Structural Estimates," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 8(4), pages 436-455.
    15. Mokhtarian, Patricia L. & Salomon, Ilan, 1997. "Modeling the desire to telecommute: The importance of attitudinal factors in behavioral models," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 35-50, January.
    16. Cristian Domarchi & Alejandro Tudela & Angélica González, 2008. "Effect of attitudes, habit and affective appraisal on mode choice: an application to university workers," Transportation, Springer, vol. 35(5), pages 585-599, August.
    17. Hopkins, Debbie, 2016. "Can environmental awareness explain declining preference for car-based mobility amongst generation Y? A qualitative examination of learn to drive behaviours," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 149-163.
    18. Alexa Delbosc & Graham Currie, 2013. "Causes of Youth Licensing Decline: A Synthesis of Evidence," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 271-290, May.
    19. Klein, Nicholas J. & Smart, Michael J., 2017. "Millennials and car ownership: Less money, fewer cars," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 20-29.
    20. Reimers, Cordelia W, 1983. "Labor Market Discrimination against Hispanic and Black Men," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 65(4), pages 570-579, November.
    21. Spears, Steven & Houston, Douglas & Boarnet, Marlon G., 2013. "Illuminating the unseen in transit use: A framework for examining the effect of attitudes and perceptions on travel behavior," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 40-53.
    22. Gordon Liu & Wai-Wai Ko, 2011. "An Analysis of Cause-Related Marketing Implementation Strategies Through Social Alliance: Partnership Conditions and Strategic Objectives," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(2), pages 253-281, May.
    23. Handy, Susan & Cao, Xinyu & Mokhtarian, Patricia L., 2005. "Correlation or causality between the built environment and travel behavior? Evidence from Northern California," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt5b76c5kg, University of California Transportation Center.
    24. Martin Biewen, 2014. "A general decomposition formula with interaction effects," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(9), pages 636-642, June.
    25. Blumenberg, Evelyn & Taylor, Brian D. & Smart, Michael & Ralph, Kelcie & Wander, Madeline & Brumbagh, Stephen, 2012. "What's Youth Got to Do with It? Exploring the Travel Behavior of Teens and Young Adults," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt9c14p6d5, University of California Transportation Center.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jose Marquez & Joanna Inchley & Emily Long, 2022. "Cross-Country and Gender Differences in Factors Associated with Population-Level Declines in Adolescent Life Satisfaction," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(4), pages 1405-1428, August.
    2. Miller, Keaton & Wilson, Wesley W., 2023. "Changes in rail rates for U.S. commodity grain shipments over time," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    3. Michelle Burton & Rachel Eike, 2023. "The Sustainability-Conscious Consumer: An Exploration of the Motivations, Values, Beliefs, and Norms Guiding Garment Life Extension Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-16, August.
    4. Juan Acosta-Ballesteros & María del Pilar Osorno-del Rosal & Olga María Rodríguez-Rodríguez, 2021. "Measuring the effect of gender segregation on the gender gap in time-related underemployment," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 55(1), pages 1-16, December.
    5. Sean Urwin & Yiu‐Shing Lau & Gunn Grande & Matt Sutton, 2023. "Informal caregiving, time use and experienced wellbeing," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 356-374, February.
    6. Ruyi Lin & Juan Chu & Lizi Yang & Ligao Lou & Huiju Yu & Junfeng Yang, 2023. "What are the determinants of rural-urban divide in teachers’ digital teaching competence? Empirical evidence from a large sample," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Anna Amilon & Mona Larsen, 2023. "Increasing retirement ages in Denmark: Do changes in gender, education, employment status and health matter?," European Journal of Ageing, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Shin, Eun Jin, 2023. "Decomposing neighborhood disparities in bicycle crashes: A Gelbach decomposition analysis," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 156-172.
    9. Starczewski Tomasz & Lopata Ewelina & Kowalski Mateusz & Rogatka Krzysztof & Lewandowska Aleksandra & Verma Pramit, 2023. "Is the future sustainable? Analysis of Generation Z’s social awareness of sustainable development in Poland," Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development, Sciendo, vol. 27(3), pages 113-122, July.

    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. Kailai Wang & Xize Wang, 2022. "Generational Differences in Automobility: Comparing America's Millennials and Gen Xers Using Gradient Boosting Decision Trees," Papers 2206.11056, arXiv.org.
    2. De Vos, Jonas & Alemi, Farzad, 2020. "Are young adults car-loving urbanites? Comparing young and older adults’ residential location choice, travel behavior and attitudes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 986-998.
    3. Krueger, Rico & Rashidi, Taha H. & Vij, Akshay, 2018. "X vs. Y: An Analysis of Intergenerational Differences in Transport Mode Use Among Young Adults," SocArXiv unezy, Center for Open Science.
    4. Wang, Kailai & Wang, Xize, 2021. "Generational Differences in Automobility: Comparing America's Millennials and Gen Xers Using Gradient Boosting Decision Trees," SocArXiv n3a9e, Center for Open Science.
    5. Rico Krueger & Taha H. Rashidi & Akshay Vij, 2020. "X vs. Y: an analysis of intergenerational differences in transport mode use among young adults," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(5), pages 2203-2231, October.
    6. Haseeb, Attiya & Mitra, Raktim, 2023. "Do environmentally sustainable travel behaviours contribute to transportation-related social exclusion?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    7. Monteiro, Mayara Moraes & de Abreu e Silva, João & Haustein, Sonja & Pinho de Sousa, Jorge, 2021. "Urban travel behavior adaptation of temporary transnational residents," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    8. Wu, Guoqiang & Hong, Jinhyun & Thakuriah, Piyushimita, 2019. "Assessing the relationships between young adults’ travel and use of the internet over time," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 8-19.
    9. Aliaksandr Malokin & Giovanni Circella & Patricia L. Mokhtarian, 2021. "Do millennials value travel time differently because of productive multitasking? A revealed-preference study of Northern California commuters," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2787-2823, October.
    10. Nash, Sean & Mitra, Raktim, 2019. "University students' transportation patterns, and the role of neighbourhood types and attitudes," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 200-211.
    11. Circella, Giovanni & Alemi, Farzad & Tiedeman, Kate & Berliner, Rosaria M & Lee, Yongsung & Fulton, Lew & Mokhtarian, Patricia L & Handy , Susan, 2017. "What Affects Millennials’ Mobility? PART II: The Impact of Residential Location, Individual Preferences and Lifestyles on Young Adults’ Travel Behavior in California," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt5kc117kj, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    12. Zhang, Yixue & Zhao, Pengjun & Lin, Jen-Jia, 2021. "Exploring shopping travel behavior of millennials in Beijing: Impacts of built environment, life stages, and subjective preferences," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 49-60.
    13. Wang, Kailai & Akar, Gulsah & Chen, Yu-Jen, 2018. "Bike sharing differences among Millennials, Gen Xers, and Baby Boomers: Lessons learnt from New York City’s bike share," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 1-14.
    14. Klein, Nicholas J. & Smart, Michael J., 2017. "Millennials and car ownership: Less money, fewer cars," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 20-29.
    15. Sonja C. Kassenboehmer & Mathias G. Sinning, 2014. "Distributional Changes in the Gender Wage Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 335-361, April.
    16. Zhang, Li & Sharpe, Rhonda Vonshay & Li, Shi & Darity, William A., 2016. "Wage differentials between urban and rural-urban migrant workers in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 222-233.
    17. Owen O’Donnell & Eddy van Doorslaer & Adam Wagstaff, 2012. "Decomposition of Inequalities in Health and Health Care," Chapters, in: Andrew M. Jones (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Health Economics, Second Edition, chapter 17, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Niels-Hugo Blunch, 2018. "Just like a woman? New comparative evidence on the gender income gap across Eastern Europe and Central Asia," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 8(1), pages 1-41, December.
    19. Murat Genc, 2017. "Gender, Ethnicity, and Wages in New Zealand," EcoMod2017 10338, EcoMod.
    20. Elder, Todd E. & Goddeeris, John H. & Haider, Steven J., 2010. "Unexplained gaps and Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 284-290, January.

    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:kap:transp:v:48:y:2021:i:2:d:10.1007_s11116-020-10080-5. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.