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Germany's Capacities to Work from Home

Author

Listed:
  • Alipour, Jean-Victor

    (Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

  • Falck, Oliver

    (Ifo Institute for Economic Research)

  • Schüller, Simone

    (German Youth Institute (DJI))

Abstract

Due to the COVID-19 crisis and the related "social distancing" measures, working from home (WfH) has suddenly become a crucial lever of economic activity. This paper combines survey and administrative data to compute measures for the feasibility of working from home among German employees. Breaking down the data by occupation, region, industry, and employee characteristics, we document considerable variation in the potential to WfH across all dimensions. We find that WfH is feasible for roughly 56 percent of the overall German workforce, while less than half of this potential was exploited in the pre-pandemic economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Alipour, Jean-Victor & Falck, Oliver & Schüller, Simone, 2020. "Germany's Capacities to Work from Home," IZA Discussion Papers 13152, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13152
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Germany; working from home; COVID-19;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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