Abstract

Long-distance commuting (LDC) is a growing phenomenon in specialized countries in extractive industries such as Chile. There has also been a growing concern about the potential impacts on the health of long-distance commuters. This paper formalizes the relationship between commuting distance and self-assessed health status and shows the monetary valuation of health costs for commuting long distances using a latent class approach. This econometric approach allows us to capture both preference and threshold heterogeneity. The results show that there are two classes of workers: the first group is not sensitive to commuting distance, whereas the monetary valuation of workers in the second group is equivalent to CLP $431 (US$0.68).