Working from home and mental health: before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

A. Bilgrami

Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers from HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York

Abstract: Robust evidence on working from home and mental health is lacking, with recent concerns it may blur work-home boundaries. Working from home was discretionary and less intensive in pre-pandemic years, while during the pandemic, it was often intensive and ‘mandated’. I estimate the relationship between working from home and mental health via fixed-effects and instrumental variable (IV) estimation. I find no evidence that working from home harmed mental health, on average, pre-pandemic, with IV estimates suggesting potentially improved health. Conversely, working from home may have deteriorated mental health during the pandemic, potentially due its ‘forced’, intensive nature during this time.

Keywords: mental health; working from home; worker wellbeing; instrumental variable (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D00 I18 J81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-des
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:yor:hectdg:23/03

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