Is Your Commute Killing You? On the Mortality Risks of Long-Distance Commuting

Erika Sandow, Olle Westerlund () and Urban Lindgren
Additional contact information
Erika Sandow: Department of Geography and Economic History, Umeå University, 90187 Umeå, Sweden
Urban Lindgren: Department of Geography and Economic History, Umeå University, 90187 Umeå, Sweden

Environment and Planning A, 2014, vol. 46, issue 6, 1496-1516

Abstract: There is a general belief that expanding labour-market regions, triggered by increased commuting, have positive economic effects on individuals, firms, and society. Recently, however, scholars have reported possible negative outcomes related to health and well-being. Based on these findings, this study addresses the association between long-distance commuting, and mortality. Using longitudinal individual data from between 1985 and 2008, focusing on 55-year-olds in 1994, we model mortality through propensity score matching and Kaplan–Meyer estimates of survival among long-distance commuters and matched controls from the population travelling short distances to work. The results indicate that women who have experienced long-distance commuting face a significantly higher mortality risk compared with women with short commutes to work. This seems to be driven by variations in income and education: for example, for women with long-distance commuting experience, substantially lower survival rates are found among those with low education and low income. A very different picture emerges for men, for whom mortality risks do not seem to be associated with long-distance commuting. Our findings suggest that men and women are subject to different mechanisms regarding the nexus between commuting and mortality.

Keywords: long-distance commuting; health; mortality; propensity score matching; survival rates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a46267 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:46:y:2014:i:6:p:1496-1516

DOI: 10.1068/a46267

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning A
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().