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The Cost of Commuting Is Paid by Women

, by Andrea Costa
Being less willing to commute, women can miss good job opportunities. Thomas Le Barbanchon closes the Think Diverse podcast series

Thomas Le Barbanchon, Associate Professor at Bocconi University's Department of Economics, has focused his research on a little-known aspect of gender pay gap. Commuting time may explain part of this gap, as women are less willing to commute.

In the tenth and last episode of the THINK DIVERSE podcast series, Professor Le Barbanchon says to host Catherine De Vries that the hidden cost of commuting is higher on average for a woman than for a man, by a quantifiable amount.


And since women look for jobs closer to home, they are bound to miss some opportunities compared with men. This damages women, but also firms who have a narrower selection base for the jobs they offer.

In the second part of the talk, Le Barbanchon outlines what policies can be implemented to correct this distortion, and finally he makes interesting remarks on whether the pandemic provided an opportunity to improve the situation, by increasing the possibilities to work from home, or not.

Listen the episode and follow the series on:

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The Long Way to Good Jobs for Women | Podcast #10

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