Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: My Home Is My Castle - The Benefits of Working From Home During a Pandemic Crisis: Evidence From Germany
Author-Name: Jean-Victor Alipour
Author-Email: alipour@ifo.de
Author-Name: Harald Fadinger
Author-Email: harald.fadinger@uni-mannheim.de
Author-Name: Jan Schymik
Author-Email: jschymik@mail.uni-mannheim.de

Classification-JEL: J22, H12, I18, J68, R12, R23
Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Working from Home, Labor Supply Shock, Infections, Mitigation, BIBB-BAuA

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-term 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 con-
finement, mobility levels were lower in counties with more WFH jobs and counties experienced
a convergence in traffic levels once confinement was in place.

Note: 
Length: 48
Creation-Date: 2020-06
Revision-Date: 
File-URL: https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp178
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:CRCTR224_2020_178