Working Paper: NBER ID: w27422
Authors: Alexander W. Bartik; Zoe B. Cullen; Edward L. Glaeser; Michael Luca; Christopher T. Stanton
Abstract: The threat of COVID-19 has increased the health risks of going to an office or factory, leading more workers to do their jobs remotely. In this paper, we provide results from firm surveys on both small and large businesses on the prevalence and productivity of remote work, and expectations about the persistence of remote work once the COVID-19 crisis ends. We present four main findings. First, while overall levels of remote work are high, there is considerable variation across industries. The Dingel and Neiman (2020) measure of suitability for remote work does a remarkably good job of predicting the industry level patterns of remote work - highlighting the challenge of moving many industries to remote work. Second, remote work is much more common in industries with better educated and better paid workers. Third, in our larger survey, employers think that there has been less productivity loss from remote working in better educated and higher paid industries. Fourth, more than one-third of firms that had employees switch to remote work believe that remote work will remain more common at their company even after the COVID-19 crisis ends.
Keywords: COVID-19; remote work; productivity; inequality
JEL Codes: J01; J24; M5; O3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Suitability for remote work (J62) | Probability of firms switching to remote work (J29) |
| Share of workers with a college degree (J39) | Probability of firms switching to remote work (J29) |
| Remote work status (J63) | Perceived productivity (O49) |
| Current remote work status (J63) | Future remote work expectations (J29) |