One of the classic predictions of the urban economic theory is that high-income and low-income households choose different residential locations and therefore, conditional on workplace location, have different commuting patterns. Empirical tests of this theory are not standard, due to unobserved...

We hypothesize, and test for, a negative effect of the length of the commute on worker’s productivity, by examining whether the commute has a positive effect on worker’s absenteeism. Our estimates for Germany indicate that commuting distance induces absenteeism with an elasticity of about...

A new paradigm for transport economists has been established: revenues of a welfare-maximising road tax should be employed to reduce the level of a distortionary income tax. An essential assumption to reach this conclusion is that the number of workdays is optimally chosen, whereas daily...

There is little known about the effects of staggered-hours programs that affect workers' working schedules to mitigate peak congestion. We examine the effect of workers' morning start times on their wages for Germany. In contrast to previous work based on cross-section data, we demonstrate that...

We analyse the effects of distortionary company car taxation through increased household carownership for the Netherlands. We use several identification strategies and demonstrate thatfor about 20 percent of households company car possession increases car ownership. Theannual welfare loss of...

This paper introduces a method for estimating workers' marginal willingness to pay for job attributes employing data on job search activity. Worker's willingness to pay to avoid a temporary contract, which increases the risk of becoming unemployed, is derived for Lithuania. The empirical...

This paper deals with the relocation of firms. There are indications from former research, that age, size and market are determinants of relocated companies. This paper aims to demonstrate that mobile firms are younger, more export oriented and more rapidly growing. With the use of two theories,...

We develop an equilibrium job search model in which employees incur commuting costs, and residential relocation is costly. We demonstrate that firms partially compensate workers for the incurred relocation costs to avoid paying compensation for commuting costs.

The empirical wage curve literature has demonstrated that workers in high-unemployment regions earn less. At the same time, many labour markets, especially in Europe, are characterised by persistent regional unemployment differentials and a low interregional labour mobility rate. It is argued in...

We test a number of hypotheses derived from search theory about spatial job and residential moving behaviour of two-earner households using data for Denmark. In line with theory, we demonstrate that residential mobility depends positively on the commuting distance of both spouses, but negatively...