Toward Estimating the Incidence of Journey-to-Work Costs

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the extent to which the daily travel to work costs are passed forward to employers in the form of higher wages. The incidence is estimated from a sample of Glasgow, Scotland workers who relocated their residences within the city. It was found that the elasticity of wages with respect to travel costs is greater than zero for both men and women and, perhaps, as much as one for men. Since the relocation within the city led to substantial job change, it would seem that wages should be expected to adjust to changes in policy areas such as transport and land zoning which make it cheaper or more expensive for workers to get to employment opportunities. © 1983, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.