What Drives Telecommuting?

Abstract

A 2002 survey of Southern California residents was analyzed to evaluate the relative importance of factors that determined a worker's propensity to telecommute and telecommuting frequency. The survey collected a wealth of individual demographic information as well as job type, industry, and employer characteristics from about 5,000 residents. In agreement with previous studies, the propensity to telecommute was found to increase with worker age and educational attainment. At the same time, it was concluded that the propensity to telecommute depended to a large extent on a worker's job characteristics and that the quantitative effects of job characteristics were at least as important as demographic factors. The factors that affected telecommuting frequency were also studied based on a 1-week commuting diary of the telecommuters in the survey. The industry and occupation categories that played a significant role in affecting the propensity to telecommute did not have similar effects on telecommuting frequency. On the contrary, some other job-related factors showed substantial influences.