Working from Home: Too Much of a Good Thing?

Abstract

We develop a general equilibrium model with three primary production factors-land, skilled, and unskilled labor-and three sectors-construction, intermediate inputs, and final consumption-to study how different intensities of telecommuting affect the efficiency of firms that embrace home working, as well as its impact on the whole economy. In doing so, we pay particular attention to the effects of increasing working from home (WFH) that go through changes in the production and consumption of buildings: more WFH reduces firms' demands for office space, but increases workers' demand for living space since additional room is required to work from home. We find that more WFH is a mixed blessing: the relationship between telecommuting and productivity or GDP is ∩-shaped, whereas telecommuting raises income inequality. Hence, WFH is not a panacea since an excessive downscaling of workspaces may be damaging to all and exacerbate economic inequality.

Regional and sectorial impacts of the Covid‐19 crisis: Evidence from electronic payments

“…(2) where y ln( ) ismt is the outcome for municipality i, month ∈ m {1, …, 8}, sector s and year ∈ t {2017, 2018, 2019, 2020}; α i is a municipality fixed effect; γ s is a sector fixed effect; λ m is a month fixed effect; and ε ismt is an error term. The indicator variables are Y2020 for the year 2020, ∈ i , {1, …, 308} Bertrand et al, 2004). 15 When we estimate (1) for a single sector, we omit the corresponding fixed effect.…”

“…Medium-term effects stemming from modified residential choices are analyzed byDelventhal and Parkhomenko (2020) andBehrens et al (2021).…”

Teleworking in the Public Administration: An Analysis Based on Spanish Civil Servants’ Perspectives During the Pandemic

“…A new trend seems to suggest that teleworking will be substituted by working from anywhere, thanks to the support of electronic resources and different types of devices (Choudhury et al, 2019;Crichton, 2020). Although the demand for office space is reduced, more space at home is required (Behrens et al, 2021) (b) Resources. Teleworking uses the electronic resources and storage.…”

The Donut Effect of COVID-19 on Cities

“…Delventhal, Kwon, and Parkhomenko (2021)'s model finds that jobs move to city centers even as residents themselves move away from cities. Behrens, Kichko, and Thisse (2021) find that the demand for office space falls while the demand for living space increases, while Davis, Ghent, and Gregory (2021)'s model finds that the elasticity of substitution between in-person work and WFH has changed in favor of WFH. Previous papers have also examined how productivity spillovers and amenities lead to clustering in cities, especially of skilled workers (e.g.…”