Impacts of Telecommuting on Nonmandatory Activity Participation: Role of Endogeneity

Abstract

Telecommuting has been regarded as an alternative work arrangement that provides higher levels of resilience and flexibility for the workforce. To provide a robust estimation of telecommuting activity, it is important to understand the extent of telecommuting and the underlying factors that contribute to telecommuters’ decisions. One line of discussion in behavioral decisions (including telecommuting) is the endogeneity issue, also referred to as simultaneity in cause and effect. The question is whether certain activity travel behaviors are the causes of telecommuting adoption or telecommuters are manifesting such behaviors because they telecommute. For instance, are people traveling more or farther because of the higher spatial–temporal freedom brought by telecommuting, or are they choosing to or having to telecommute because they already have those activity arrangements (e.g., take care of kids) in place. Exploring such interrelationships between the choice to telecommute, activity travel plans, and other personal and household decisions is the major motivation for this research. Structural equation models were developed. Results showed that adding feedback effects to the full model improved the goodness of fit of the model, and this improvement is statistically significant ( P-value = .032). Furthermore, it could be inferred that a decision to participate in nonmandatory activities has significant positive impact on propensity to telecommute, and it is more in favor of a full-day telecommuting arrangement (versus a part-day arrangement). This study used the 2010–2011 regional household travel survey data from the New York metropolitan region.

Synergistic and threshold effects of telework and residential location choice on travel time allocation

“…For this study, the duration of telework is the key interest variable. Time spent for online shopping is one of the most important control variables as it is another crucial component of virtual mobility and has been found to influence an individual’s time allocation significantly ( Asgari & Jin, 2017 ; Asgari et al, 2016 ; Kramers et al, 2014) . A dominant share of previous literature focuses on telework and online shopping among all types of ICT activities while analyzing ICTs’ impacts on travel behavior ( Dong, Cirillo, & Diana, 2018 ).…”

“… Asgari, Jin, and Du (2016) , and Asgari and Jin (2017) conducted structural analyses for the relationships between time allocated among non-mandatory activities, different telecommuting patterns, and the decisions to commute. The studies constructed research datasets based on the 2010–2011 Regional Household Travel Survey in the New York metropolitan region.…”

Challenges, perceptions, and future preferences for post-secondary online education given experiences in the COVID-19 outbreak

“…Second, they allow the analyst to incorporate latent factors into the model (Bollen, 1989). The literature documents successful application of structural equation models in a variety of behavioral studies (Asgari et al, 2016;Asgari & Jin, 2017, 2019Cao, 2016; Mosa, 2011). SEM analysis is usually accompanied by a graphical manifestation, referred to as the "path diagram".…”

Preparing urban mobility for the future of work

“…The opposite effect, whether discretionary trips affect the decision to choose flexible work, has also been investigated (Asgari and Jin, 2017). The authors find that people with the option for flexible work are more likely to do so on days where they plan a discretionary activity, and the length of the discretionary activity is predictive of the decision to engage in a full day of flexible work.…”