Effect of an Accessibility Measure in a Model for Choice of Residential Location, Workplace, and Type of Employment

A three-level nested logit model for the choice of residential location, workplace, and type of employment is used to assess the effect of an individual-specific measure of accessibility to employments that takes into account the attractiveness of different occupations when the choice of workplace is anticipated in the decision of residential location. The model allows for variation in the preferences for types of employment across individuals and accounts for individual heterogeneity of preferences at each choice level in education, age, gender, and children. Using data from the Île-de-France region, it shows that the individual specific accessibility measure is an important determinant of the choice of residential location and its effect differs along the life cycle. The attractiveness of the types of employment is a better predictor of the workplace location than the usual total number of employments.