Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP14871
Authors: Harald Fadinger; Jan Schymik; Jean-Victor Alipour
Abstract: This paper studies the relation between work and public health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Combining administrative data on SARS-CoV-2 infections and short-time work registrations, firm- and worker-level surveys and cell phone tracking data on mobility patterns, we find that working from home (WFH) is very effective in economic and public health terms. WFH effectively shields workers from short-time work, firms from COVID-19 distress and substantially reduces infection risks. Counties whose occupation structure allows for a larger fraction of work to be done from home experienced (i) much fewer short-time work registrations and (ii) less SARS-CoV-2 cases. Health benefits of WFH appeared mostly in the early stage of the pandemic and became smaller once tight confinement rules were implemented. Before confinement, mobility levels were lower in counties with more WFH jobs and counties experienced a convergence in traffic levels once confinement was in place.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; working from home; labor supply shock; infections mitigation
JEL Codes: J22; H12; I18; J68; R12; R23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| confinement measures (F38) | health benefits of WFH (I15) |
| Working from Home (WFH) (J29) | Short-Time Work (STW) applications (J22) |
| higher share of WFH jobs (J29) | SARS-CoV-2 infection rates (Y10) |
| higher share of WFH jobs (J29) | fatality rates (I12) |
| Working from Home (WFH) (J29) | SARS-CoV-2 infection rates (Y10) |
| Working from Home (WFH) (J29) | fatality rates (I12) |