A household perspective on the commuting paradox: Longitudinal relationships between commuting time and subjective wellbeing for couples in China

•Revisit the commuting paradox from the household perspective.•Employ a longitudinal design to analyse the gendered commuting-wellbeing causality.•Both couples reported worse life satisfaction with the increase of commuting time.•Husbands’ life satisfaction was influenced by wives’ commuting time.•Wives’ commuting utility was more related to the household structure.