Does commuting affect health?

Summary

This paper analyzes the relation between commuting time and health in
the UK. I focus on four different types of health outcomes: subjective
health measures, objective health measures, health behavior, and
healthcare utilization. Fixed effect models are estimated with British
Household Panel Survey data. I find that whereas objective health and
health behavior are barely affected by commuting time, subjective health
measures are clearly lower for people who commute longer. A longer
commuting time is, moreover, related to more visits to the general
practitioner. Effects turn out to be more pronounced for women and for
commuters driving a car. For women, commuting time is also negatively
related to regular exercise and positively to calling in sick. Copyright
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.