Concentration versus re-matching? Evidence about the locational effects of commuting costs

Michael J. Boehm

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Using administrative employer-employee data from Germany, I exploit two reductions of tax breaks for commuting in 2003/4 and 2006/7 to estimate commuting costs’ effect on the decision to switch job and move house. Standard theory predicts that higher commuting costs should lead to increased concentration in urban centers. However, I find that re-matching of existing jobs and houses to reduce commuting distances is much more prevalent in the data. With these estimates I calculate the effect of a complete abolition of the tax breaks on overall travel distance, fuel usage, greenhouse gas emissions, the tax base, and the de-population of the countryside.

JEL-codes: J61 J68 Q48 Q58 R00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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