Journal of Economics and Development Studies

Hierarchy Divisions of the Ability to Endure Commute Costs: An Analysis based on a Set of Data about Construction Workers
Keren Sun, Peter Philips, Xin Zhao

Abstract
This paper proposes a new hierarchy theory, i.e., hierarchy divisions of the ability to endure commute costs, as the alternative theory of Transportation System Users’ Hierarchy of Needs. We analyze the structure of commute costs, commute costs consist of safety cost, time cost, societal cost, money cost, and cost of comfort and convenience, which include subjective costs and objective costs. we have simplified the commute cost as a function of commuting distance. As the abilities to acceptance of commuting distance for construction workers are mainly relative to their wage levels, so we choose wages per hour and commute distance as clustering variables to do clustering analysis of construction industry data, and get some new views, such as, from the overall perspective of construction workers, the relationship between the wage level and the ability that can endure commute cost is positive, and a large proportion of construction workers can only or only willingly endure low commute cost; from the ethnicity perspective of construction workers, we can know that the abilities of construction workers of different ethnicity to endure commuting costs are different, which rank as follows: African American> White> American Indian> Asian or Pacific Islander> Other> Hispanic> Mixed races; from the occupation perspective of construction workers, we can know that the abilities of construction workers of different occupation to endure commuting costs are different, which rank as follows: Roofer > Ironworker > Sheetmetal > Operating engineer > Laborer > Apprentice > Electrician > Journeyman > Plaster Drywall > Foreman > Carpenter > Mason> Plumber fitter, etc.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jeds.v8n4a1