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What If Working from Home Will Stick? Distributional and Climate Impacts for Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Bachelet, Marion

    (Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC))

  • Kalkuhl, Matthias

    (Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC))

  • Koch, Nicolas

    (Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC))

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic created the largest experiment in working from home. We study how persistent telework may change energy and transport consumption and costs in Germany to assess the distributional and environmental implications when working from home will stick. Based on data from the German Microcensus and available classifications of working-from-home feasibility for different occupations, we calculate the change in energy consumption and travel to work when 15% of employees work full time from home. Our findings suggest that telework translates into an annual increase in heating energy expenditure of 110 euros per worker and a decrease in transport expenditure of 840 euros per worker. All income groups would gain from telework but high-income workers gain twice as much as low-income workers. The value of time saving is between 1.3 and 6 times greater than the savings from reduced travel costs and almost 9 times higher for high-income workers than low-income workers. The direct effects on CO2 emissions due to reduced car commuting amount to 4.5 millions tons of CO2, representing around 3 percent of carbon emissions in the transport sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Bachelet, Marion & Kalkuhl, Matthias & Koch, Nicolas, 2021. "What If Working from Home Will Stick? Distributional and Climate Impacts for Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 14642, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14642
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nick & Davis, Steven J., 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," SocArXiv wfdbe, Center for Open Science.
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    5. Steve Cicala, 2020. "Powering Work from Home," NBER Working Papers 27937, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Joe Piacentini & Harley Frazis & Peter B. Meyer & Michael Schultz & Leo Sveikauskas, 2022. "The Impact of COVID-19 on Labor Markets and Inequality," Economic Working Papers 551, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
    2. Leroutier, Marion & Quirion, Philippe, 2023. "Tackling Car Emissions in Urban Areas: Shift, Avoid, Improve," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    working from home; COVID-19; distributional effect; climate impact;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • Q40 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - General
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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