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  • 2020
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

What Jobs Are Being Done at Home During the COVID-19 Crisis? Evidence from Firm-Level Surveys

By: Alexander Bartik, Zoë Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca and Christopher Stanton
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:27
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Abstract

The threat of COVID-19 has increased the health risks of going to an office or factory, leading more workers to do their jobs remotely. In this paper, we provide results from firm surveys on both small and large businesses on the prevalence and productivity of remote work, and expectations about the persistence of remote work once the COVID-19 crisis ends. We present four main findings. First, while overall levels of remote work are high, there is considerable variation across industries. The Dingel and Neiman (2020) measure of suitability for remote work does a remarkably good job of predicting the industry level patterns of remote work—highlighting the challenge of moving many industries to remote work. Second, remote work is much more common in industries with better educated and better paid workers. Third, in our larger survey, employers think that there has been less productivity loss from remote working in better educated and higher paid industries. Fourth, more than one-third of firms that had employees switch to remote work believe that that remote work will remain more common at their company even after the COVID-19 crisis ends.

Keywords

COVID-19; Remote Work; Health Pandemics; Jobs and Positions; Demographics; Surveys

Citation

Bartik, Alexander, Zoë Cullen, Edward L. Glaeser, Michael Luca, and Christopher Stanton. "What Jobs Are Being Done at Home During the COVID-19 Crisis? Evidence from Firm-Level Surveys." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 20-138, June 2020.
  • SSRN
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About The Authors

Zoe B. Cullen

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

Michael Luca

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
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Christopher T. Stanton

Entrepreneurial Management
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More from the Authors
  • Black Ownership Matters: Does Revealing Race Increase Demand for Minority-Owned Businesses? By: Abhay Aneja, Michael Luca and Oren Reshef
  • Is Pay Transparency Good? By: Zoë Cullen
  • Shanty Real Estate: Teaching Note By: Michael Luca, Jesse M. Shapiro and Nathan Sun
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