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Commuting, Family, and Wages

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Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics

Abstract

This chapter reviews theoretical and applied research on worker commuting behaviors and how they relate to or affect other household behaviors and wages. It is first introduced the topic of commuting behaviors, providing a summary of why it is important in fields such as economics, urban planning, geography, psychology, and labor relations. The chapter then provides a review of the theoretical, empirical, and methodological literature on commuting, on the one hand, and families and wages, on the other, that includes urban models, transport models, time use analyses, models of household behavior, job-search models, and data-driven empirical studies, among others. Topics on which the literature has reached consensus are highlighted, as well as limitations of existing research and the gaps emerging in the state-of-the-art literature. The chapter may serve to provide a deeper understanding of the implications of worker commuting behaviors and to guide further research on the various correlational and causal links existing between commuting, family characteristics, and wages.

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Acknowledgments

Responsible Section Editor: Klaus F. Zimmermann

The chapter has benefitted from valuable comments of the editors, anonymous referees, and Jos van Ommeren. Financial support by the Government of Aragón [Project S32_20R, Program FSE Aragón 2014–2020] and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [Project PID2019-108348RA-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033] is gratefully noted. There is no conflict of interest.

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Giménez-Nadal, J.I., Molina, J.A., Velilla, J. (2023). Commuting, Family, and Wages. In: Zimmermann, K.F. (eds) Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57365-6_420-1

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