IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/jku/econwp/2026-08.html

So Far Away? Hiring Discrimination against Female Commuters

Author

Listed:
  • Sascha O. Becker
  • Ana Fernandes
  • Nurlan Lalayev
  • Doris Weichselbaumer

Abstract

We study gender differences in employers’ responses to commuting distance using data from a large-scale correspondence test in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. A 10 km increase in driv- ing distance reduces women’s probability of receiving an interview invitation by 1.8 percentage points, around 9 percent of the mean female invitation rate, while commuting distance has no corresponding effect for men. The gender difference is statistically significant and robust to alter- native distance measures and thresholds, firms’ rural or urban location, and local labor-market tightness. The female distance penalty does not vary detectably with applicants’ reported marital status or the presence of children, providing no support for screening based on these observed indicators of household responsibilities.

Suggested Citation

  • Sascha O. Becker & Ana Fernandes & Nurlan Lalayev & Doris Weichselbaumer, 2026. "So Far Away? Hiring Discrimination against Female Commuters," Economics working papers 2026-08, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    • Handle: RePEc:jku:econwp:2026-08
    Note: English
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.jku.at/fileadmin/gruppen/117/WorkingPapers/econ/2026/wp2608.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:hal:journl:halshs-01116874 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Becker, Sascha O. & Fernandes, Ana & Weichselbaumer, Doris, 2019. "Discrimination in hiring based on potential and realized fertility: Evidence from a large-scale field experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 139-152.
    3. Mladen Adamovic & Andreas Leibbrandt, 2023. "A large‐scale field experiment on occupational gender segregation and hiring discrimination," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(1), pages 34-59, January.
    4. Mathieu Bunel & Yannick L’Horty & Pascale Petit, 2016. "Discrimination based on place of residence and access to employment," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(2), pages 267-286, February.
    5. Lídia Farré & Jordi Jofre-Monseny & Juan Torrecillas, 2023. "Commuting time and the gender gap in labor market participation," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(4), pages 847-870.
    6. Baert, Stijn, 2015. "Field experimental evidence on gender discrimination in hiring: Biased as Heckman and Siegelman predicted?," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy, vol. 9, pages 1-11.
    7. Mathieu Bunel & Emilia Ene & Yannick L’horty & Pascale Petit, 2013. "Discrimination based on place of residence and access to employment," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) 201337, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS.
    8. Bütikofer, Aline & Karadakic, René & Willén, Alexander, 2025. "Parenthood and the gender gap in commuting," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    9. Lídia Farré & Jordi Jofre-Monseny & Juan Torrecillas, 2023. "Commuting time and the gender gap in labor market participation," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 23(4), pages 847-870.
    10. Stefan Eriksson & Jonas Lagerström, 2012. "The Labor Market Consequences of Gender Differences in Job Search," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 303-327, September.
    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. Andreas Mense & Wolfgang Dauth & Matthias Wrede, 2026. "Access to Jobs and Individual Labor Market Outcomes," CESifo Working Paper Series 13040, CESifo.

    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. Julia Schmieder & Doris Weichselbaumer & Clara Welteke & Katharina Wrohlich, 2024. "Parental Leave and Discrimination in the Labor Market," Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers 0054, Berlin School of Economics.
    2. Rosa Sanchis-Guarner & Nikodem Szumilo & Antoine Vernet, 2024. "Startup stations: The impact of rail access on entrepreneurship (self-employment) in England and Wales," Working Papers 2024/11, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    3. Loic Du Parquet & Pascale Petit, 2019. "Discrimination à l’embauche : Ce que nous apprennent deux décennies de testings en France," Working Papers hal-02333816, HAL.
    4. Markus Nagler & Johannes Rincke & Erwin Winkler, 2024. "Working from home, commuting, and gender," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(3), pages 1-23, September.
    5. Simon Bittmann & Ulysse Lojkine, 2025. "The Chains of Exploitation: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration," Post-Print hal-04435653, HAL.
    6. José M. Casado-Díaz & Raquel Simón-Albert & Hipólito Simón, 2023. "Gender Differences in Commuting: New Evidence from Spain," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 907-941, October.
    7. Mathieu Bunel & Yannick L'Horty & Loïc du Parquet & Pascale Petit, 2017. "Les discriminations dans l’accès au logement à Paris : Une expérience contrôlée," TEPP Research Report 2017-01, TEPP.
    8. Gimenez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto & Velilla, Jorge, 2024. "Commuting, Wages, and Household Behavior," IZA Discussion Papers 17128, IZA Network @ LISER.
    9. Nezih Guner & Ezgi Kaya & Alessandro Ruggieri & Virginia Sánchez-Marcos, 2025. "Firms, Flexibility, and Fertility," Working Papers wp2025_2525, CEMFI.
    10. Patricia Cortés & Jisoo Hwang & Jessica Pan & Uta Schönberg, 2026. "Gender Norms and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 34716, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Sylvain Chareyron & Yannick L'Horty & Pascale Petit & Souleymane Mbaye, 2019. "Mesurer l’impact d’un courrier d’alerte sur les discriminations liées à l’origine," Working Papers hal-02333840, HAL.
    12. Laetitia Challe & Yannick L’Horty & Pascale Petit & François-Charles Wolff, 2024. "Cyclical behavior of hiring discrimination: evidence from repeated experiments in France," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 72(3), pages 711-733, March.
    13. Khalil, Sana, 2025. "Gender and neighborhood penalties in Karachi’s information technology sector," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    14. Magnus Bygren & Anni Erlandsson & Michael Gähler, 2025. "The When and Whereabouts of Gender Hiring Discrimination," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(2), pages 21582440251, April.
    15. Wu, Jiaxian & Liu, Xiuyan & Li, Hao, 2024. "The subway and the gender wage gap," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    16. Julie Le Gallo & Yannick L'Horty & Loïc du Parquet & Pascale Petit, 2017. "Les discriminations dans l’accès au logement en France : Un testing de couverture nationale," TEPP Research Report 2017-11, TEPP.
    17. Jośé Ignacio Giménez-Nadal & José Alberto Molina & Jorge Velilla, 2025. "Commuting, Wages, and Household Decisions," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 1087, Boston College Department of Economics.
    18. Souleymane Mbaye, 2019. "Trois évaluations d’actions de lutte contre les discriminations," Erudite Ph.D Dissertations, Erudite, number ph19-01 edited by Pascale Petit, June.
    19. Yannick L'Horty & Mathieu Bunel & Pascale Petit, 2019. "Testing for redlining in the labour market," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 153-173, April.
    20. Giménez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto & Velilla, Jorge, 2026. "Household commuting time and job changes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • R41 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Transportation: Demand, Supply, and Congestion; Travel Time; Safety and Accidents; Transportation Noise

    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:jku:econwp:2026-08. 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: René Böheim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vlinzat.html .

    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.