Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/85997 
Year of Publication: 
2003
Series/Report no.: 
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. 03-084/3
Publisher: 
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
Abstract: 
This paper replicates Costa and Kahn's analysis of locational choices of couples of highly educated persons for the Netherlands. We find increasing concentration of such power couples in the urbanized western part of the country. This trend occurs in spite of the absence of an urban wage premium for university-educated workers and the concentration of congestion there. We find that power couples locate more often in medium sized and larger cities than otherwise comparable households and that they are relatively often owner-occupiers and live in more expensive housing. Their commutes are relatively short when it is taken into account that it is more difficult for these households to find suitable combinations of employment and residence locations than it is for single earner households. A probable explanation for these findings is that power couples use their relatively large purchasing power to outbid other households from locations that are especially attractive t!o them, as is predicted by household location theory.
Subjects: 
dual earner households
power couples
urban wages
location choice
commuting distance
housing demand
JEL: 
R12
R21
D13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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