Commuter´s mobility- an analysis based on Swedish register data

Siv Schéele, Stockholm University

Commuters are mobile on a daily (or weekly) basis between home and work. But commuters are more mobile as they also have rates of migration and change of workplace higher than non-commuters. In economic theory it is explained as part of a search process. My primary interest is to see which municipalities are more attractive as a residence of living and which as a workplace. That is to study the consequences for the regional pattern. Therefore commuters on a municipal level are studied using the register data from Statistics Sweden (SIMSAM project). This database gives longitudinal data for both residence and workplace. Data are also complemented with data on travel distances and travel times. The study handles commuters in the Mälar Region the year 2005, the year for which travel data between dwelling and workplace are given on a very detailed geographic level ( SAMS). A discrete-time event history model is set up to study the mobility. Rates of migration and change of workplace respectively are shown to be very dependent on the number of years being a commuter. By taking account of that, the relative risk of migration varies with pure demographic variables like age, gender and family position, whereas the relative risk of change of workplace varies with pure economic variables like incomeand commuting distance. The risks do also vary by municipality type. Separate models are run for men and women.