Abatement of Commuting’s Negative Externalities by Regional Investment in Houses and Buildings

Wim Heijman () and Johan Ophem ()
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Wim Heijman: Wageningen University
Johan Ophem: Wageningen University

Chapter 12 in Regional Externalities, 2007, pp 245-254 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Over the past decades commuting distances have increased substantially in all developed countries. Bringing jobs and dwellings more closely together is desirable from a societal viewpoint. So, instead of commuting, which causes extensive negative externalities like air pollution and traffic congestion, residential mobility should be fostered. The question that then arises is which type of investment influences residential mobility of households and reduces commuting. After an exploration of the relationship between investment in houses and residential mobility, a model is developed that allows for the testing of the hypothesis that, on the one hand, investment in houses in a region favours residential mobility to that specific region and, on the other hand, reduces in-commuting. The hypothesis is tested on data from provinces in the Netherlands for the years 1998 and 1999. The results indicate that the model gives a fairly adequate description of commuting and residential mobility behaviour. The hypothesis is confirmed. Furthermore, it appears that the investments in houses in a province in the Netherlands should be roughly twice as high as the investments in buildings. The policy implications of the results are discussed.

Keywords: Commuting; Residential mobility; Investment in buildings; Investment in houses; Externalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-540-35484-0_12

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-35484-0_12

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