Why Women Work Closer to Home

Abstract

This paper analyzes the extent to which differences in labor force status, in household composition, and in household roles account for sex differences in workplace-residence separation. Modelling work trip length as the outcome of the choice of household residential and individual job locations, equilibrium work trip length is estimated empirically as a function of labor market, housing, and household characteristics for male and female employees in seven different household categories. Data from the 1976 Panel Survey of Income Dynamics are used. The study concludes that while sex differences in job tenure, work hours, and wages are in themselves sufficient to fully account for observed sex differences in workplace-residence separation, sex differences in household 'roles' (i.e., responses to spouses' characteristics) are of even greater importance in influencing women to work 'closer to home'.