 When does remote electronic access (not) boost productivity? Longitudinal evidence from PortugalNatália Monteiro, Odd Rune Straume and Marieta Valente Information Economics and Policy, 2021, vol. 56, issue C Abstract: Whether or not the option to work remotely increases firm labour productivity is theoretically ambiguous. We use a rich and representative sample of Portuguese firms, and within-firm variation in the policy of remote electronic access – a key prerequisite for remote work – over the period 2011–2016, to empirically assess the relationship between remote access and firm labour productivity. Based on estimations of models with firm-fixed effects, we find a significantly negative association, on average, between remote access and productivity. However, we also find a substantial degree of heterogeneity across different categories of firms, where the association between remote access and productivity is significantly positive for firms that undertake R&D activities. Our findings suggest that the possibility of working remotely, as proxied by the possibility of remote access, is more likely to be harmful for productivity in non-exporting, small firms that do not do R&D, and that employ a workforce with a below-average skill level. Keywords: Remote access; Firm labour productivity; Panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:iepoli:v:56:y:2021:i:c:s0167624521000111 DOI: 10.1016/j.infoecopol.2021.100923 Access Statistics for this article Information Economics and Policy is currently edited by D. Waterman More articles in Information Economics and Policy from Elsevier |
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