Travel mode choice as a rational choice [Elektronische Ressource] : different aspects / vorgelegt von Eldad Davidov

Sujets

• Soziologie

Informations

• Publié par: justus-liebig-universitat_giessen
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 9
• Langue: English

Extrait

Travel Mode Choice as a Rational Choice – Different
Aspects


Dissertation zur Erlangung des
Doktorgrades (Dr. rer. soc.)
des Fachbereichs Gesellschaftwissenschaften
der Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen

Vorgelegt von
Eldad Davidov

aus Tel-Aviv-Jaffa, Israel

2003
ii





Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Peter Schmidt. iii















嶐崰崰巀嵐 嵀崐崐巀
1
Contents
1) Introduction …………………………………………………………………...2
2) Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………..24
3) Time and Money: An Empirical Explanation of Behavior in the Context of
Travel Mode Choice with the German Microcensus…..…………………….26
4) Is There Any Interaction Effect between Intention and Perceived
Behavioral Control?.……….………………………………………………...56
5) Modeling Longitudinal Data of an Intervention Study on Travel Model
Choice: Combining Latent Growth Curves and Autoregressive Models……96
6) Wie gut erklären „enge” oder “weite” Rational-Choice-Version
Verhaltensveränderungen? Ergebnisse einer experimentellen
Interventionssstudie.........…………………………………………………..136
7) The Force of Habit and Rational Behavior. An Empirical Test in the
Context of Travel Mode Choice...………………………………………….171
8) A Bridge between ‘Bridge Assumptions’: Some Clarifications………..…..215
9) Conclusions from the Dissertation…….……………………………………230
10) References for the Introduction and the Conclusions Sections……………234


2

Introduction
The PhD dissertation is a collection of chapters dealing with decision making in
general, and with empirical testing of travel mode choice in particular. The papers
take up theoretical, substantive and methodological issues, and combine theory and
empirical work.

Rational choice theory has been increasingly used in the social sciences in the last
two decades. However, its impact on empirical research has been small. The
following chapters discuss, on the one hand, different versions of rational choice. On
the other hand, they address the critique of several authors, who have argued that
rational choice theorists neglect empirical work. Green and Shapiro (1994) have
argued that researchers investigating individual behaviour concentrate on theory
elaboration rather than on theory testing. Opp (1998) and Simon (1985) have called to
pursue the hard work, which is often not done, of testing rational action theory
empirically. Furthermore, Goldthorpe (1998, p. 52) has pointed out that in present-
day sociology rational action theory and the quantitative analysis of large-scale data
sets are pursued largely in isolation from each other (see also Blossfeld and Prein,
1998). Apart from encouraging to test action theories with data (Goldthorpe 1998:
33), researchers have argued that it may develop changes in theory in light of
contradictory empirical results (Becker 1996:156). From such a viewpoint it is
apparent that for exploring the sociological mechanisms of individual choices in
general, and in the context of travel mode choice in particular, an affinity between
rational action theory and data is to their mutual benefits. Five of the following
chapters test rational choice models empirically with different sets of data, and all of
them discuss the bridge between data and theory, thus linking theory and data. All in
all, the chapters contribute to a better link between theory and data in the context of
travel mode choice.

The substantive issue taken up is ecological behavior and decision making in the
context of travel mode choice: what makes people choose transportation, which is 3
friendlier towards the environment? Social scientists have been expected to contribute
to a better understanding of environmentally related behavior in order to find ways to
ecologically improve it on the aggregate level. The topic of mobility in this context
has been an increasingly important one, due to its continuous growth in the last
decades. People travel more, and use more often their car in comparison to earlier
years, partially due to changes in lifestyle. Determinants of travel mode choice may
be sociological, social psychological and economic in nature. An interdisciplinary
approach may achieve a better explanation and point to potentially successful
policies. I try to apply this general approach in all of the following chapters.

The methodological issue taken up deals with structural equation modeling applied
especially on new techniques to test panel data and interaction effects. Indeed, as
Goldthorpe (1998:50) has pointed out, advances in modelling and estimation
techniques steadily improve the chances of making effective evaluations.

The first chapter challenges the economic approach, and is an empirical test of
Becker’s study from 1965 on the role of time as an economic constraint in decision-
making. It takes up several points which are central to the link between empirical data
and theory of behavior and decision making in the context of travel mode choice:
availability of variables to test a model; the need to construct auxiliary assumptions,
for example alternative sociological mechanisms, for a better link between data and
theory; and the limitedness of narrow versions of rational choice to explain behavior
in a satisfactory manner. For the empirical test the German microcensus data of 1996
is used to test travel mode choice on the way to work. In this chapter I have restricted
myself to maintaining three goals. First, I suggested testing a well-established
theoretical model of behavior of Becker, questioning whether time in addition to
monetary costs affects behavior in the context of travel mode choice. Second, I tried
to test Becker’s theory by using large-scale data from the German microcensus of
1996. Third, I checked whether socio-demographic characteristics have any effect on
behavior after controlling for economic restrictions. As Green and Shapiro claimed
(1994) and as previously pointed out, proponents of rational choice seem to be most 4
interested in theory elaboration, leaving for later or others the messy business of
empirical testing. We tried to bridge this gap between rational choice theory and
large-scale data analysis by testing an important rational choice model, which has not
been seriously challenged so far in the context of travel mode choice.

Becker has been trying in his work to formulate a theory, which could explain any
behavior, in the economic market, in choice of partners, in family relations and in
social discrimination in the form of production functions. I have tried to test a special
case in this theory, in respect with the decision whether to choose the car or the public
transport on the way to work. As a theoretical framework, I drew out of his strongly
and elegantly formulated theory testable hypotheses, in order to check how well his
explanations work in a practical problem. Specifically I wanted to check if
restrictions rather than preferences affect choices, and whether the effects of socio
demographic characteristics, which may represent preferences in addition to time cost
differences according to Becker, disappear, when objective restrictions as time costs
are introduced in the empirical test. In formulating the hypotheses, I was confronted
with the question how to model time costs. Such a question often comes out when one
tries to test a rational choice model empirically, and operationalize a theoretical
variable. Velocity incorporates two important factors to compute efficiency of time
use, namely the duration of travel and also the distance. As it is the efficiency of the
use of time rather than its absolute number, which reflects how costly or effectively it
is used, I concluded that it would be best measured by the velocity of the means of
transportation.

As theoretically expected, I found a significant effect of the time cost, reflected by the
interaction term between higher income and velocity, on the travel mode choice in the
sample of the German microcensus. As car is the faster mode of transportation, the
more costly is the time, namely, the higher the income per hour, the higher the
positive effect of higher velocity on the tendency to use the car on the way to work.
This confirms the theoretical expectation of Becker, that time has a value, and thus an 5
effect on choices in time consuming daily activities, and particularly also on travel
mode choice.

However, the empirical test could not confirm the second implication from Gary
Becker’s work that all socio demographic characteristics are reflected by different
time costs. I suspected I would find a significant effect of some sociological
characteristics on travel mode choice. In the findings, marital status and gender had a
significant and overwhelming effect on travel mode choice. In addition, the
interaction term of income per hour and velocity became insignificant. Women,
indeed, use more public transportation as well as unmarried people. We found no
direct significant effect of education on travel mode choice, which may be explained
by the fact t