Work from Home and Disability Employment

Nicholas Bloom, Gordon Dahl and Dan-Olof Rooth

No 32943, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: There has been a dramatic rise in disability employment since the pandemic. At the same time, work from home (WFH) has risen four-fold. This paper asks whether the two are causally related. Controlling for compositional changes and labor market tightness, a 1 percentage point increase in WFH increases full-time employment by 1.0% for individuals with a physical disability. The post-pandemic increase in working from home explains 68%-85% of the rise in full-time employment. Wage data suggests that WFH increased the supply of workers with a physical disability, likely by reducing commuting costs and enabling better control of working conditions.

JEL-codes: J14 J20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea, nep-ipr, nep-lab, nep-tre and nep-ure
Note: AG EH LS PE
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: Work from Home and Disability Employment (2025)
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