Telecommuting choice

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Telecommuting choice#

A person-level telecommute choice model is estimated to generate the telecommute level of telecommuting in POLARIS using the CMAP household travel survey data. During the model estimation process, the survey data analysis indicates the spike at zeros (i.e., the do not telecommute response), which shows the excessive number of non-telecommuters and suggests a type of latent class arrangement in the population. The excessive number of do not telecommute observations can be associated with the fact that many workers either do not have the option of telecommuting or they prefer not to telecommute even when it is a feasible option for them (Singh et al., 2013). To address this issue, an extended version of zero-inflated hierarchical ordered probit (ZIHOP) model was adopted (Harris and Zhao, 2007) to estimate individuals’ telecommuting choices. This model splits the population into two regimes that their decision outcomes relate to potentially two different sets of explanatory variables. This modeling approach in the context of telecommuting can be interpreted as whether an individual has the option of telecommuting, and then, conditional on feasibility, how often he/she conducts telecommuting which also includes zero occurrence. Therefore, this model consists of two stages; the first stage (known as participation equation) deals with a binary choice of whether an individual is a “potential telecommuter” or not. The second stage (known as activity equation) corresponds to the frequency of conducting telecommuting that is estimated with an ordered probit model.

References#

  • Shabanpour, R., Golshani, N., Tayarani, M., Auld, J., & Mohammadian, A. K. (2018). Analysis of telecommuting behavior and impacts on travel demand and the environment. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 62, 563-576.

  • Singh, P., Paleti, R., Jenkins, S., & Bhat, C. R. (2013). On modeling telecommuting behavior: Option, choice, and frequency. Transportation, 40, 373-396. Harris, M. N., and X. Zhao. (2007). A Zero-Inflated Ordered Probit Model, with an Application to Modelling Tobacco Consumption. Journal of Econometrics, 141(2), 1073–1099. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JECONOM.2007.01.002.

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