Female labour supply and travel behaviour. A theoretical and empirical investigation through alternative household decision making models -PhD Thesis-

Publication type

Thesis/Degree/Other Honours

Author

Publication date

June 1, 2000

Abstract:

The joint analysis of female labour supply and travel behaviour, although strongly connected - travel to work is a source of fixed costs which may prevent female labour market entrance - has so far been paid little attention. The aim of the present thesis is to develop a framework cast within the household decision theory and enabling the joint examination of female labour supply and family members' travel patterns. In particular, after reviewing the main results and empirical evidence ascribable to three distinct areas of research - relating respectively to household decision making, participation decision with fixed costs, and demand for transport services - (Chapter 1), some models combining labour supply and modal choices examination will be illustrated (Chapter 2). Emphasis will be given to the case of a household having two adults and possessing at least one car; the decision process will been modelled by resorting both to the unitary scheme and the collective schemes, with particular reference to processes leading to Pareto-efficient outcomes and to Nash equilibria. Travel behaviour will be investigated first conditional on both spouses working, and secondly jointly with the secondary workers' labour market participation decision; in any case, travelling will be regarded as an intermediate good. A further extension will concern the introduction of externalities in hours of work. A general result is that, no matter the household decision framework adopted, when no mode preference exists modal choices can be decentralised and are undertaken having regard only to the efficiency criterion. An empirical application with reference to a sample of households drawn from the 1992 British Household Panel Study, comparing the unitary and the efficient decision schemes, shows no statistically significant correlation between labour force participation and transport costs; moreover, a partial income pooling hypothesis is accepted (Chapter 3).

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Notes

not held in Res Lib - bibliographic reference only

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