Tied to Home and Children? The Impact of Commuting Distances on Gender Wage Gaps

Economic and sociological theories of family suggest that women are more geographically constrained in choices of residence and commuting distances than men. According to search theories, this leads to a reduction in job offers and, in turn, wage levels. Hence, women's shorter commuting distances may contribute to the gender wage gap. These hypotheses are tested using longitudinal analyses of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (GSOEP, panel waves 2001 to 2009). First, the often observed shorter commutes of women are examined. There are indications that women, motivated by family context, are somewhat more geographically constrained than men and there is evidence that these constraints lead to lower wages. However, these effects are very weak and can only explain a small fraction of differences in pay. Finally, we demonstrate that commonly used cross-section analyses are strongly biased by unobserved heterogeneity, which leads to a considerable overestimation of the wages gained by longer commuting distances.