Working from Home, Wages, and Regional Inequality in the Light of COVID-19

TY - JOUR

T1 - Working from Home, Wages, and Regional Inequality in the Light of COVID-19

AU - Irlacher, Michael

AU - Koch, Michael

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston 2020. Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2021/6

Y1 - 2021/6

N2 - We use the most recent wave of the German Qualifications and Career Survey to reveal a substantial wage premium in a Mincer regression for workers performing their job from home. The premium accounts for more than 10% and persists within narrowly defined jobs as well as after controlling for workplace characteristics. In a next step, we provide evidence on substantial regional variation in the share of jobs that can be done from home in Germany. Our analysis reveals a strong, positive relation between the share of jobs with working from home opportunities and the mean worker income in a district. Assuming that jobs with the opportunity of remote work are more crisis proof, our results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic might affect poorer regions to a greater extent. Hence, examining regional disparities is central for policy-makers in choosing economic policies to mitigate the consequences of this crisis.

AB - We use the most recent wave of the German Qualifications and Career Survey to reveal a substantial wage premium in a Mincer regression for workers performing their job from home. The premium accounts for more than 10% and persists within narrowly defined jobs as well as after controlling for workplace characteristics. In a next step, we provide evidence on substantial regional variation in the share of jobs that can be done from home in Germany. Our analysis reveals a strong, positive relation between the share of jobs with working from home opportunities and the mean worker income in a district. Assuming that jobs with the opportunity of remote work are more crisis proof, our results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic might affect poorer regions to a greater extent. Hence, examining regional disparities is central for policy-makers in choosing economic policies to mitigate the consequences of this crisis.

KW - BIBB-BAuA

KW - COVID-19

KW - home office

KW - regional disparities

KW - working from home

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100021189&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1515/jbnst-2020-0030

DO - 10.1515/jbnst-2020-0030

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85100021189

SN - 0021-4027

VL - 241

SP - 373

EP - 404

JO - Jahrbucher fur Nationalokonomie und Statistik

JF - Jahrbucher fur Nationalokonomie und Statistik

IS - 3

ER -