The backward-bending commute times of married women with household responsibility

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine theoretically and empirically whether the commute times of married women follow a backward-bending pattern with respect to wage rates. The existing literature has shown that married women tend to choose short commutes because of their relatively low wages combined with comparatively heavy household responsibilities. However, a work-leisure model, which includes the simultaneous decision wives take regarding commute times and wage rates, suggests that married women employed in highly paid positions also undertake short commutes, while married women with wage rates in the middle range choose long commutes. These results suggest that the commute times of married women display a backward-bending pattern. Applying an instrumental variable strategy that accounts for the endogeneity of wage rates, the empirical results for employed married women in Japan appear to support this …nding. Moreover, one of our results suggests that highly paid married women can still secure greater leisure time with short commutes, despite retaining a heavy load of domestic responsibilities.

Family labor supply, commuting time, and residential decisions: The case of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area

“…Since parttime wages are less variable and the commuting time is zero for all part-time workers, the outcomes for these workers are compressed into the lower-left corner as mass points. These results are quite different from the relationship found by Iwata and Tamada (2008), who find that working wives with the highest wages live closest to the CBD. Figure 6.B shows that some full-time working wives with high wages also have high D values.…”

“…Iwata and Tamada (2008) build a model of commuting behavior of married women and argue for a nonmonotonic relationship between the wage rate of working married women and their commuting time. Sakanishi (2007Sakanishi ( , 2008 builds a model in which household location is determined by the husband's choice and the wife chooses her employment status given the husband's location.…”

“…Proposition 2 implies that the wages of full-time working wives living closer to the CBD are not necessarily higher than those of wives living farther from the CBD. On the one hand, a household in which the wife works full time has more incentive to locate close to the CBD because of the AMM condition (e.g., Iwata and Tamada 2008). On the other hand, as shown in Proposition 2, it is easier for wives located close to the CBD for other reasons to participate in full-time work.…”

Commuting Time and Household Responsibilities: Evidence Using Propensity Score Matching

“…Crane () shows that, in the U.S., after controlling for other sources of difference, such as demographics and community features, the average woman's trip to work differs markedly from that of the average man . Iwata and Tamada () show that time spent commuting by married Japanese women follows a backward‐bending pattern, as there is a trade‐off between commute time and the hours devoted to housework as wage rates increase. Sandow and Westin () find that Swedish women have a shorter commute than men, regardless of employment sector, education level, or family situation, indicating that the gender role and the daily time constraints of women impose stricter limitations on women's geographical labor mobility.…”

A discontinuity test for identification in triangular nonseparable models

“…Examples of problems and instruments include Stewart and Swaffield (1997), which studies the effect of wages on the desired hours of work, and uses as instrument for wages a combination of variables including years of education and the male age-specific regional unemployment rate. Iwata and Tamada (2014) examine the effect of wages on the commuting time of married women, also using a combination of variables as instrument for wages, including the average market wage for women and the age of the respondent. Lydon and Chevalier (2002) investigate the effect of wages on job satisfaction, and use as instrument for the person's wages their partner's characteristics, such as wage and age.…”