Residential choice location, gender and the commute trip to work in Tel Aviv

This paper investigates various factors influencing individual’s choice of residence location and the role of the commute trip on that decision. It tries to identify how residential decisions are influenced by socio-economics variables and neighborhood characteristics with emphasis on behavioral differences between the genders. The analysis is based on the Israel Census data for the Tel Aviv metropolitan area and uses both descriptive statistics and estimation of a logit choice model. The results show the important of both the area characteristics and the commute distance in choosing residential location and significant differences between men and women. The importance of commute distance in residential location choice decreases with increase in one’s level of income, level of education, and number of car in one’s household. The results are consistent with existing research literature with new emphasis on the effect of income.