Aron Szennay (p)

Tasos Kitsos

Urban sprawl, or in other words rapid expansion of residential areas around cities and towns may have significant consequences on environment. Low density residential zones use extensively land, which could be used for food production or as natural habitats, which reduces biodiversity. Suburban lifestyle (e.g., larger dwellings, individual heating, occasionally swimming pools, etc.) has a rather larger ecological footprint than urban (see for example Kovács et al., 2020 or Hardi et al., 2020, 2021).
The paper focuses on environmental impact of Hungarian small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To measure environmental impacts of businesses activities an online corporate ecological footprint calculator was developed (see Szigeti et al., 2021).
Ecological footprint (EF) indicator represents the size of land needed for humanity at a given level of technological development to satisfy its needs and absorb waste generated (Wackernagel and Rees, 1996). EF can be considered as sound measure of (un)sustainability since it is easy-to-understand and relatively easy to determine the upper limit of sustainable consumption. The sample analysed consists of data on 72 surveyed SMEs classified into five groups based on a preliminary qualitative analysis (see Szennay et al., 2021). groups are different from any statistical classifications (i.e., NACE in the EU or SIC in the USA). The groups are as following: (1) construction; (2) white-collar jobs; (3) production; (4) retail and/or wholesale trade; (5) transportation.
Our results suggest that decisions on site locations may influence environmental impacts of commuting, since emissions are lower when total transport demand is lower (i.e., the workplace is closer) or when the location can be accessed easily by environmentally more responsible transport modes (i.e., public transport, bicycle, etc.). This aspect may be highly relevant in case of green field investments or where public transport does not exist. Secondly, lockdowns after COVID-19 pandemic proved that most white-collar works can be done remotely. In addition, minor business meetings or even conferences could be arranged online. This means, that total transport demand and its environmental impacts can be reduced.
Our results have, however, some limitations. First of all, the analysed sample is small, consists of only 72 SMEs, and not representative.

Ramona Jost (p), Antje Weyh, Michaela Fusch

Tasos Kitsos

It is a stylized fact that women commute shorter distances to work than men. Several determinants have been brought forward to explain this gender gap in commuting. Among individual and sociodemographic factors, differences in age, education, or household responsibilities play a large role. Likewise, job-related factors such as working part-time or in sectors located close to home or earning low wages make commuting long distances less attractive for women. In regional respect, urban structure and geographic characteristics also constitute important determinants of commuting. Due to their lower spatial mobility, women cannot benefit from better job and career opportunities or higher wages in other regions to the same degree as men. This is especially the case in rural regions, where individuals have to commute longer distances to their workplace than in urban regions.
Although much is known on the gender-specific determinants of commuting, the lack of comprehensive data in spatial and temporal respect represents a major limitation. To our knowledge, existing studies focus only on a specific region or a specific time span or do not specifically consider rural-urban differences. Thus, they cannot explain the long-run evolution and determinants of the gender gap in commuting on a small-scale spatial level in a comprehensive way. This may be particularly important given that over the past decade, for example, better childcare has made it easier for women to work and increase their labour market supply, which might lead to a decrease of the commuting gap.
We expand this limitation by investigating the gender gap in commuting for the years from 2000 to 2017. We use a unique dataset for Germany that contains geocoded information on the place of residence and work for each employee. Route-planning algorithms allow for a precise measurement of daily commuting distances and times. Besides a detailed analysis of the gendered commuting patterns and their change over time, we investigate commuting in the urban-rural setting. Results show that commuting time has increased more for women than for men, leading to a decreasing commuting gap. However, there are large differences as to commuting between or within urban/rural regions. Further analyzing the individual, job-related and regional determinants of these gaps with the help of Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions reveals significant variation in their explanatory power.

Fatma Turki (p), Aymen Ghédira

Tasos Kitsos

'see extended abstract'