My Home Is My Castle -- The Benefits of Working from Home During a Pandemic Crisis: Evidence from Germany

Harald Fadinger, Jan Schymik and Jean-Victor Alipour

No 14871, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper studies the relation between work and public health during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Combining administrative data on SARS-CoV-2 infections and short-time work registrations, firm- and worker-level surveys and cell phone tracking data on mobility patterns, we find that working from home (WFH) is very effective in economic and public health terms. WFH effectively shields workers from short-time work, firms from COVID-19 distress and substantially reduces infection risks. Counties whose occupation structure allows for a larger fraction of work to be done from home experienced (i) much fewer short-time work registrations and (ii) less SARS-CoV-2 cases. Health benefits of WFH appeared mostly in the early stage of the pandemic and became smaller once tight confinement rules were implemented. Before confinement, mobility levels were lower in counties with more WFH jobs and counties experienced a convergence in traffic levels once confinement was in place.

Keywords: Covid-19; Sars-cov-2; Working from home; Labor supply shock; Infections; Mitigation; Bibb-baua (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H12 I18 J22 J68 R12 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (19)

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Working Paper: My Home Is My Castle - The Benefits of Working From Home During a Pandemic Crisis: Evidence From Germany (2020)
Working Paper: My Home Is my Castle – The Benefits of Working from Home During a Pandemic Crisis Evidence from Germany (2020)
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