Telecommuting and residential locational preferences

S. Muhammad, H. F.L. Ottens, D. Ettema, T. De Jong

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Traditionally, along with stages of the life cycle and changes in people's financial status and their household composition, the commute distance has been identified as one of the main explanatory factors for residential locational preferences and subsequent migration flows. In the Netherlands, telecommuting is rapidly becoming popular and is expected to affect residential locational preferences. A hypothesis that can be raised is that telecommuting has an impact on the effect that commute distance has on residential preferences. Based on this hypothesis, this paper investigates the role of telecommuting alongside the traditional factors currently explaining residential locational preferences. This research provides evidence that, in the Netherlands, telecommuting has enabled people to commute longer distances. Currently the effect of telecommuting on the probability of relocating, however, is not significant. Telecommuting appears to have a limited effect on residential location preferences, but traditional factors, such as life cycle stages, remain the dominant explanatory factors. Copyrights

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationFuture Urbanization Patterns
Subtitle of host publicationIn the Netherlands, Under the Influence of Information and Communication Technologies
PublisherKoninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap
Pages69-85
Number of pages17
ISBN (Print)906809405X, 9789068094053
Publication statusPublished - 2007

Publication series

NameNederlandse Geografische Studies
Number363
ISSN (Print)0169-4839

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