The gendered complexity of daily life: Effects of life-course events on changes in activity entropy and tour complexity over time

This paper studies changes in the complexity of activity patterns (measured by Shannon entropy) and trip chaining patterns following life course (and accessibility) related key events from a gender specific perspective. It is theoretically informed by the mobility biographies approach and by gender/travel studies. The data used is the German Mobility Panel (GMP) 1994–2012 in which households and their members are asked three times in three subsequent years to report the trips they made over a week. Changes made from one year to the next are regressed to key events over the life course, cohort effects and period effects, while sociodemographics, residential and workplace spatial context attributes are controlled. A cluster-robust regression approach is used to account for the non-independent character of panel observations. Significant effects were found for some key events, including the birth of a child, entry into the labour market, and changes in spatial context, accessibility and mobility. Some effects differed distinctly between men and women, suggesting that men and women are differently affected by life course events. However, taken overall the associations found, as well as their gender specifics, are rather limited. Hence, key events over the life course seem to be only loosely associated with the complexity of activity and trip patterns.