Working Paper: NBER ID: w27344
Authors: Erik Brynjolfsson; John J. Horton; Adam Ozimek; Daniel Rock; Garima Sharma; Hongyi Tuye
Abstract: We report the results of a nationally-representative sample of the US population during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey ran in two waves from April 1-5, 2020 and May 2-8, 2020. Of those employed pre-COVID-19, we find that about half are now working from home, including 35.2% who report they were commuting and recently switched to working from home. In addition, 10.1% report being laid-off or furloughed since the start of COVID-19. There is a strong negative relationship between the fraction in a state still commuting to work and the fraction working from home. We find that the share of people switching to remote work can be predicted by the incidence of COVID-19 and that younger people were more likely to switch to remote work. Furthermore, states with a higher share of employment in information work including management, professional and related occupations were more likely to shift toward working from home and had fewer people laid off or furloughed. We find no substantial change in results between the two waves, suggesting that most changes to remote work manifested by early April.
Keywords: COVID-19; Remote Work; Labor Market; Survey Data
JEL Codes: I15; J21; L23; M15; M5
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| COVID-19 cases per 100,000 individuals (Y10) | fraction of workers switching to remote work (J62) |
| fraction of workers commuting (R41) | fraction of workers working from home (J29) |
| employment in information-related occupations (L86) | shifts to remote work (J62) |
| younger individuals (J14) | likelihood of switching to remote work (J62) |
| higher proportion of employment in management, professional, and related occupations (J69) | larger shifts towards remote work (J62) |