Adopting Telework. The causal impact of working from home on subjective wellbeing

Guillaume Gueguen and Claudia Senik ()
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Guillaume Gueguen: CEPREMAP - Centre pour la recherche économique et ses applications - ECO ENS-PSL - Département d'économie de l'ENS-PSL - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres
Claudia Senik: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, SU - Sorbonne Université

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Abstract: We study the impact of work from home on subjective wellbeing during the Covid period, where self-selection of individuals into telework is ruled out, at least part of the time, by stay-at-home orders. We use a difference-in-difference approach with two-way fixed-effects and identify the specific impact of switching to telecommuting, separately from any other confounding factor. In particular, our identification strategy avoids the influence of inter-personal heterogeneity by exploiting the multiple entries into telework, by the same individuals, at different times. On average over the period, switching to work from home -especially full-time, worsens mental health. We also distinguish a positive but imprecisely measured impact of part-time telework on life satisfaction. However, this hides a dynamic evolution, whereby the initial deterioration gives place to an adaptation process after a couple of months. We also uncover a particularly pronounced fall in subjective wellbeing of women with children's subjective, especially in the first months; this could be associated with home-schooling.

Keywords: Telework; Life satisfaction; Mental Health; Covid-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-08
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