This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics
  4. Forthcoming Articles
  5. Working Remotely? Selection, Treatment, and the Market for Remote Work

Working Remotely? Selection, Treatment, and the Market for Remote Work

  • Natalia Emanuel
  • Emma Harrington
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (Forthcoming)

Abstract

How does remote work affect productivity and how productive are workers who choose remote jobs? We decompose these effects in a Fortune 500 firm. Before Covid-19, remote workers answered 12% fewer calls per hour than on-site workers. After the offices closed, the productivity gap narrowed by 4%, and formerly on-site workers’ call quality and promotion rates declined. Even with everyone remote, an 8% productivity gap persisted, indicating negative selection into remote jobs. A cost-benefit analysis indicates that savings in reduced turnover and office rents could outweigh remote work’s negative productivity impact but not the costs of attracting less productive workers.

Downloads