Work from Home and Disability Employment

Nicholas Bloom, Gordon Dahl and Dan-Olof Rooth

No 26112, RFBerlin Discussion Paper Series from ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin)

Abstract: There has been a dramatic rise in disability employment since the pandemic. At the same time, work from home (WFH) has risen four-fold. This paper asks whether the two are causally related. Controlling for compositional changes and labor market tightness, a 1 percentage point increase in WFH increases full-time employment by 1.0% for individuals with a physical disability. The postpandemic increase in working from home explains 68%-85% of the rise in full-time employment. Wage data suggests that WFH increased the supply of workers with a physical disability, likely by reducing commuting costs and enabling better control of working conditions.

Keywords: Disability Employment; Work from Home (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J14 J42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-04
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:crm:wpaper:26112

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