IFLAME Research Seminar

Does feasibility explain the long-run evolution of working from home?

By Thomas Breda - Paris School of Economics

Abstract :Using rich historical working condition surveys, we are able to study which jobs can be moved from the office to home over three decades in France. The share of jobs that can be done from home has increased steadily from 14% in 1991 to 45% in 2021. At the same time, actual Working From Home (WFH) remained limited to less than one fifth of teleworkable jobs before the Covid-19 crisis and
is still below its full potential in 2021. It is largely unrelated to the evolution of WFH feasibility, implying that the main obstacles to WFH have not been technical constraints. We also find that the ratio between actual WFH and its feasibility has always been largest for low-skilled workers and remains substantial for them after the Covid-19 crisis. This pattern cannot be explained by differences in workers' desire to telework. It implies that the well-known large inequality in access to WFH along the earnings distribution cannot be attributed only to feasibility constraints and is likely inefficient.