IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/reveho/v20y2022i3d10.1007_s11150-022-09614-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Work from home and daily time allocations: evidence from the coronavirus pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Brandon J. Restrepo

    (Food Economics Division)

  • Eliana Zeballos

    (Food Economics Division)

Abstract

The emergence and spread of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. were quickly followed by a widespread expansion in remote work eligibility, which, in turn, led to necessary alignments between pre-existing household management schedules and new home-based work schedules for many of those who worked from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic. We use 24-hour time diary data from the 2010–2020 American Time Use Survey to examine how major daily time allocations of those who WFH changed during the pandemic compared with those who worked away from home (WAFH). Before the pandemic, we find that those who WFH spent significantly less time working, commuting to work, grooming, and eating away from home, but significantly more time sleeping, socializing, relaxing, doing housework, caring for children, shopping, preparing food, and eating at home. During the pandemic, we find generally small and statistically insignificant changes in the time allocations of those who WAFH, but several large and significant changes in uses of time for those who WFH. A noteworthy intra-pandemic increase was in time devoted to labor market work by those who WFH, which almost halved the pre-pandemic WAFH-WFH difference. Results also show large and significant reductions in time devoted to other activities during the pandemic, including work-related travel, socializing, doing housework, shopping, shopping-related travel, and eating away from home. The intra-pandemic redistribution of time by those who WFH may have health and quality-of-life implications that should be assessed as the pandemic subsides and WFH becomes a more common feature of post-pandemic life.

Suggested Citation

  • Brandon J. Restrepo & Eliana Zeballos, 2022. "Work from home and daily time allocations: evidence from the coronavirus pandemic," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 735-758, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:20:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11150-022-09614-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11150-022-09614-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11150-022-09614-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11150-022-09614-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nick & Davis, Steven J., 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," SocArXiv wfdbe, Center for Open Science.
    2. Ruhm, Christopher J., 2005. "Healthy living in hard times," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 341-363, March.
    3. Brandon J. Restrepo & Eliana Zeballos, 2020. "The effect of working from home on major time allocations with a focus on food-related activities," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1165-1187, December.
    4. George Davis, 2014. "Food at home production and consumption: implications for nutrition quality and policy," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 565-588, September.
    5. Dhaval Dave & Andrew I. Friedson & Kyutaro Matsuzawa & Joseph J. Sabia, 2021. "When Do Shelter‐In‐Place Orders Fight Covid‐19 Best? Policy Heterogeneity Across States And Adoption Time," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(1), pages 29-52, January.
    6. Marc F. Bellemare & Casey J. Wichman, 2020. "Elasticities and the Inverse Hyperbolic Sine Transformation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(1), pages 50-61, February.
    7. Todd, Jessica E. & Mancino, Lisa & Lin, Biing-Hwan, 2010. "The Impact of Food Away from Home on Adult Diet Quality," Economic Research Report 58298, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    8. Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia & Victoria Vernon, 2022. "Telework, Wages, and Time Use in the United States," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 687-734, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia & Victoria Vernon, 2023. "Who is doing the chores and childcare in dual-earner couples during the COVID-19 era of working from home?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 519-565, June.
    2. Okrent, Abigail & Zeballos, Eliana, 2022. "COVID-19 Working Paper: Consumer Food Spending Changes During the COVID-19 Pandemic," USDA Miscellaneous 333545, United States Department of Agriculture.
    3. José Ignacio Giménez-Nadal & Jorge Velilla, 2024. "Home-based work, time allocations, and subjective well-being: gender differences in the United Kingdom," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 51(1), pages 1-33, February.
    4. Brandon J. Restrepo & Eliana Zeballos, 2023. "Working from Home and Emotional Well-Being during Major Daily Activities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-13, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brandon J. Restrepo & Eliana Zeballos, 2023. "Working from Home and Emotional Well-Being during Major Daily Activities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-13, February.
    2. Brandon J. Restrepo & Eliana Zeballos, 2020. "The effect of working from home on major time allocations with a focus on food-related activities," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 1165-1187, December.
    3. Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia & Victoria Vernon, 2022. "Telework, Wages, and Time Use in the United States," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 687-734, September.
    4. Bencsik, Panka & Lusher, Lester & Taylor, Rebecca, 2021. "Slow Traffic, Fast Food," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313856, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. George Davis, 2021. "The many ways COVID-19 affects households: consumption, time, and health outcomes," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 281-289, June.
    6. Dow, William H. & Godøy, Anna & Lowenstein, Christopher & Reich, Michael, 2020. "Can Labor Market Policies Reduce Deaths of Despair?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    7. Bencsik, Panka & Lusher, Lester & Taylor, Rebecca L.C., 2023. "Slow Traffic, Fast Food: The Effects of Time Lost on Food Store Choice," IZA Discussion Papers 16036, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Maria Barrero, Jose & Bloom, Nicholas & Davis, Steven J., 2021. "Internet access and its implications for productivity, inequality and resilience," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 113869, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Eliana Zeballos & Xiao Dong, 2022. "The effect of COVID‐19 on food sales," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(4), pages 2131-2144, December.
    10. Fischer, Kai & Reade, J. James & Schmal, W. Benedikt, 2022. "What cannot be cured must be endured: The long-lasting effect of a COVID-19 infection on workplace productivity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    11. Okrent, Abigail M. & Kumcu, Aylin, 2016. "U.S. Households’ Demand for Convenience Foods," Economic Research Report 262195, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    12. Andrew I. Friedson & Drew McNichols & Joseph J. Sabia & Dhaval Dave, 2021. "Shelter‐In‐Place Orders And Public Health: Evidence From California During The Covid‐19 Pandemic," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(1), pages 258-283, January.
    13. Guillaume Gueguen & Claudia Senik, 2023. "Adopting telework: The causal impact of working from home on subjective well‐being," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(4), pages 832-868, December.
    14. Zeballos, Eliana & Dong, Xiao, 2021. "The Localized Effects of the COVID-19 Recession on Food Sales," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 313996, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia & Victoria Vernon, 2023. "Who is doing the chores and childcare in dual-earner couples during the COVID-19 era of working from home?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 519-565, June.
    16. Fayaz Farkhad, Bita & Albarracín, Dolores, 2021. "Insights on the implications of COVID-19 mitigation measures for mental health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    17. Dong, Xiao & Zeballos, Eliana, 2021. "COVID-19 Working Paper: The Effects of COVID-19 on Food Sales," USDA Miscellaneous 309615, United States Department of Agriculture.
    18. Todd, Jessica E., 2014. "Changes in Eating Patterns and Diet Quality Among Working-Age Adults, 2005-2010," Economic Research Report 262214, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    19. Leopoldo Fergusson & Carlos Molina, 2020. "Facebook Causes Protests," HiCN Working Papers 323, Households in Conflict Network.
    20. Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Poutvaara, Panu & Schikora, Felicitas, 2023. "First time around: Local conditions and multi-dimensional integration of refugees," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:20:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s11150-022-09614-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.