The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the labour market and economy in many countries since March 2020. Many governments responded to the pandemic by encouraging workers to work from home. As home-based work is expected to continue after the end of the pandemic, a comprehensive assessment of workers' home-based work performance is important for determining future policies.
Yue Huang recently published a new study entitled "Home sweet home: Working from home and employee performance during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK" in the journal Labour Economics in collaboration with Sumit S. Deole, research associate at the Chair of Banking and Finance, University of Trier, and Max Deter, research associate at the Chair of Public Economics, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. Using representative data from the United Kingdom, they find that the pandemic-related increase in the frequency of working from home is associated with higher self-assessed hourly productivity among employed respondents. This association is weaker for parents with increased homeschooling needs due to school closures during lockdowns. Moreover, the effect heterogeneity analysis highlights the role of crucial job-related characteristics in the baseline association. Looking at the future of home-based work, they also show that workers' recent experiences with working from home and subsequent changes in hourly productivity are closely associated with their desire to work from home in the future.
Yue Huang recently published a new study entitled "Home sweet home: Working from home and employee performance during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK" in the journal Labour Economics in collaboration with Sumit S. Deole, research associate at the Chair of Banking and Finance, University of Trier, and Max Deter, research associate at the Chair of Public Economics, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. Using representative data from the United Kingdom, they find that the pandemic-related increase in the frequency of working from home is associated with higher self-assessed hourly productivity among employed respondents. This association is weaker for parents with increased homeschooling needs due to school closures during lockdowns. Moreover, the effect heterogeneity analysis highlights the role of crucial job-related characteristics in the baseline association. Looking at the future of home-based work, they also show that workers' recent experiences with working from home and subsequent changes in hourly productivity are closely associated with their desire to work from home in the future.
