Modeling the choice of telecommuting frequency in California: An exploratory analysis

Abstract

This study explores the individual's choice of telecommuting frequency as a function of demographic, travel, work, and attitudinal factors. To do this, multinomial logit models are estimated using data collected in a recent survey of employees from three public agencies in California. Separate models are estimated, one for data collected from the Franchise Tax Board in Sacramento, one for data from the Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco, and one for data collected from employees of the City of San Diego. The results show that the most important variables in explaining the choice of frequency of telecommuting from home were the presence of small children in the household (irrespective of respondent gender), the number of people in the household, gender of respondent, number of vehicles in the household, whether respondent recently changed departure time for personal reasons, degree of control over scheduling of different job tasks, supervisory status of respondent, the ability to borrow a computer from work if necessary, and a family orientation. The empirical analysis also shows that model results are not transferable among the three organizations studied.