The commuting gender gap and females’ labor supply and earnings in the Egyptian labor market

Abstract EN

The length of commute time to work influence the access to employment opportunities and individuals’ outcomes.

Women are unable to take the same lengthy commute time to work as men resulting in a commuting gender gap.

Using Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey for 2006 and 2012, this paper analyzes the determinants of the commuting time for men and women to identify the reasons behind the differences in commuting time according to gender.

In addition, the effect of the worker’s commute on the labor market outcomes is analyzed by examining the impact of commute time on working hours and wages by gender.

Due to the potential endogeneity of the commuting time, instrumental variable estimation is used to determine the relationship between mobility and labor market outcomes.

For women, the effect on the daily working hours is positive with a negative effect on the weekly labor supply.

Commuting time has a negative effect on men’s hourly wages but with a positive effect on their daily and weekly labor supply