Would you rather earn less money and work closer to home, or travel a little farther to earn more money? As companies build warehouses and data centres farther from residential centres, worker preferences about what researchers call the commuting burden dictate not just the size of the labour market those companies draw workers from, but how much money those workers will expect to be paid for the extra trouble of getting to work. These issues are at the centre of labour economist Abdelrahman Amer’s research.

“The main idea is to understand how reducing workers’ commuting burden, primarily through transit infrastructure and an improved subway network, can help them access better firms,” explained the PhD Candidate at the Department of Economics. “It’s not just about accessing better firms; it’s also about having more options.” [Read more…]