Full Citation
Title: "Effects of Dual-earners Households on Metropolitan Commuting: Evidence from Metropolitan Atlanta
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2005
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Abstract: The idea of creating a balance between jobs and housing within different commuting catchment areas of a city has been a prominent approach for reducing traffic congestion, air pollution, and commuting times. Dual-earner households, in which both members of a married couple are employed, have been identified as an obstacle to the job-housing balance concept due to their limited ability to choose a residential location near both workplaces. However, this has not yet been conclusively tested. Drawing on the 2000 5% PUMS dataset for metropolitan Atlanta, this paper examines the commuting behavior of these households relative to single-earner households. The results challenge the dominant assumption that the average commutes of married couple dual-earner households are necessarily longer than that of single-earner households. In fact, after controlling for all forms of socioeconomic factors in the analysis, this paper shows there are either no significant differences, or if there are, the average commutes of single-earner households are longer. It is a lack of affordable housing near job locations, or vice versa, and not the presence of dual-earner households, that should be blamed for lengthening commuting time and any difficultly in implementing job-housing balances.
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Authors: Sultana, Selima
Periodical (Full): Urban Geography
Issue: 4
Volume: 26
Pages: 328-352
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Education, Family and Marriage, Gender, Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Methodology and Data Collection
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