Does weekend commuting really pay off? A panel analysis with German data.

Second homes and weekend commuting are frequently used strategies for covering large distances between the place of work and residence. The literature posits a positive association between work-related spatial mobility, social mobility, and career achievement. However, so far, surprisingly little attention has been paid explicitly to the relationship between weekend commuting (i.e. work-related residential multilocality) and social and career mobility. Therefore, we examine whether and how starting a weekend commuting episode is associated with wage changes. For the statistical framework, we apply fixed effects panel regressions to data of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Overall, the results show that weekend commuting is positively associated with wage gains. However, more detailed analysis that controls for selectivity on wage growth and differentiates by sex and geographical region reveals pronounced differences with regard to the size and timing of the effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]