The Zoom city: working from home, urban productivity and land use

Efthymia Kyriakopoulou and Pierre Picard

Journal of Economic Geography, 2023, vol. 23, issue 6, 1397-1437

Abstract: This article investigates the impact of working from home (WFH) on the emergence and structure of monocentric cities. In the long run, WFH raises urban productivity only in sufficiently large cities. Business land rents fall while residential land rents decrease near the business district. Workers have incentives to adopt inefficiently high WFH schemes. In the short run, WFH yields mixed benefits for commuters and firms, which corroborates the low WFH adoption before the pandemic. Advances in digital technology increase the welfare benefits of WFH. Calibration exercises on European capital cities shed light on the quantitative impact of WFH.

Keywords: Working from home; urban structure; commuting; remote work; land use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J81 R12 R14 R21 R49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jecgeo:v:23:y:2023:i:6:p:1397-1437.

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