Working from home, wages, and regional inequality in the light of COVID-19

Michael Irlacher and Michael Koch ()
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Michael Koch: https://sites.google.com/view/kochmichael/home

No 2020-08, Economics working papers from Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Abstract: We use the most recent wave of the German Qualifications and Career Survey and reveal a substantial wage premium in a Mincer regression for workers performing their job from home. The premium persists within narrowly defined jobs and after controlling for workplace activities and accounts to more then 10%. In a next step, we provide evidence on substantial regional variation in the share of jobs that can be done from home across NUTS2 districts in Germany. Our results suggest that the COVID-19 crisis might affect already poorer regions more heavily as a lower share of workers can work from home there. Hence, looking at regional disparities in terms of different types of occupations is central for policy makers in choosing the right economic policies to mitigate the consequences of the crisis.

Keywords: Working from home; COVID-19; Regional disparities; Home office; BIBB-BAuA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J22 J31 J61 R10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-ias
Note: English
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Working from Home, Wages, and Regional Inequality in the Light of COVID-19 (2021)
Working Paper: Working from Home, Wages, and Regional Inequality in the Light of Covid-19 (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jku:econwp:2020-08

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