Moving to Productivity: The Benefits of Healthy Buildings

Juan Palacios (), Piet Eichholtz () and Nils Kok ()
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Juan Palacios: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Center for Real Estate; IZA Institute of Labor Economics
Piet Eichholtz: Maastricht University
Nils Kok: School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University

No 1, Working Papers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for Real Estate

Abstract: Health is a critical factor for the generation of value by workers. Companies bear substantial costs associated with absenteeism and presenteeism among their employees. This study investigates the impact of the environmental conditions in the workplace on the health and job satisfaction of employees, as core factors of productivity. We provide evidence based on a natural experiment, in which 70% of the workforce of a municipality in the Netherlands was relocated to a building with a design focused on sustainability and health and well-being. We construct a longitudinal dataset based on individual surveys of the entire municipality workforce and include measures before and after the move. The estimation results show a significant improvement in the perceived environmental conditions, as well as in the health and well-being of the relocated workers, measured by the drop in incidence of sick building syndrome symptoms. Results are heterogeneous based on age: older groups of employees enjoy larger health impacts. The relocation effects remain persistent in the medium term (two years after the moving date). Importantly, a mediation analysis suggests that the achieved improvements in health and well-being lead to significantly enhanced job satisfaction and a 2% reduction in the prevalence of sick leave.

Keywords: Healthy Buildings; Worker Performance; Sustainability; Real Estate; IEQ (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I12 Q50 R30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2020-08
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in PLOS ONE, 2020

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bkc:wpaper:0001

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3710946

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