Commuting flows across bordering regions: a note

Abstract

This article analyses the bilateral commuting flows across bordering regions of four European Union countries. The results suggest that aggregate cross-border commuting increases as the asymmetries in income per capita and the unemployment rate increase. Commuting time or distance and language differences between the bordering regions impede cross-border commuting.

Acknowledgements

This article was written while Ladislav Wintr was visiting the Banque centrale du Luxembourg. He acknowledges the support from the Ridgefield Foundation obtained through the Henry J. Leir Program at Clark University.

Opinions expressed in this article are personal opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the respective institutions the authors are affiliated with. We thank Guy Zacharias from Statec for providing us with the data on commuting flows, Michal Mlady from Eurostat for compiling consistent labour market indicators for our sample period, as well as Michael Pflüger and our discussant Joakim Gullstrand at the SNEE conference in Mölle, Sweden for their comments.

Notes

¹ The median cross-border commuting time to Luxembourg of about 42 min reported by Berger (2005) supports our choice of regional centers.

² The labour market variables of interest reported in New Cronos are not consistent over the entire span of our study due to changes in reporting methodology. Consistent data were obtained directly from Eurostat.

³ The correlation coefficient between these two variables exceeds 90%. Indeed, if we estimate the same specification with either the relative unemployment or gross value added per employee, the corresponding coefficient becomes significantly positive.