IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bfi/wpaper/2020-132.html

60 Million Fewer Commuting Hours Per Day: How Americans Use Time Saved by Working from Home

Author

Listed:
  • Jose Maria Barrero

    (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México - Business School)

  • Nick Bloom

    (Stanford University - Department of Economics; NBER)

  • Steven J. Davis

    (University of Chicago - Booth School of Business; NBER; Hoover Institution)

Abstract

Drawing on original surveys of our own design, we estimate that the pandemic-induced shift to working from home lowers commuting time among Americans by more than 60 million hours per work day. Cumulative time savings over the past seven months exceed 9 billion hours. Our survey data also say that Americans devote about 35% of the time savings to their primary jobs and about 60% to work activities of all sorts, including household chores and child care. The allocation of time savings is broadly similar for men and women and across groups defined by race and ethnicity, but it differs substantially by education group and between persons with and without children at home.

Suggested Citation

  • Jose Maria Barrero & Nick Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2020. "60 Million Fewer Commuting Hours Per Day: How Americans Use Time Saved by Working from Home," Working Papers 2020-132, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bfi:wpaper:2020-132
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repec.bfi.uchicago.edu/RePEc/pdfs/BFI_WP_2020132.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alexander Bick & Adam Blandin & Karel Mertens, 2023. "Work from Home before and after the COVID-19 Outbreak," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 1-39, October.
    2. Dingel, Jonathan I. & Neiman, Brent, 2020. "How many jobs can be done at home?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    3. Erik Brynjolfsson & John J. Horton & Adam Ozimek & Daniel Rock & Garima Sharma & Hong-Yi TuYe, 2020. "COVID-19 and Remote Work: An Early Look at US Data," NBER Working Papers 27344, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis, 2020. "COVID-19 Is Also a Reallocation Shock," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 51(2 (Summer), pages 329-383.
    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. Cevat Giray Aksoy & Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Mathias Dolls & Pablo Zarate, 2022. "Working from Home Around the World," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 53(2 (Fall)), pages 281-360.
    2. Manuela Tomei, 2021. "Teleworking: A Curse or a Blessing for Gender Equality and Work-Life Balance?," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 56(5), pages 260-264, September.
    3. Steve Cicala, 2020. "Powering Work From Home," Working Papers 2020-147, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    4. repec:osf:socarx:wfdbe_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Daniel Albalate & Xavier Fageda, 2022. ""Have Low Emission Zones slowed urban traffic recovery after Covid-19?"," IREA Working Papers 202222, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Dec 2022.
    6. 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.
    7. Hensher, David A. & Wei, Edward & Liu, Wen, 2023. "Accounting for the spatial incidence of working from home in an integrated transport and land model system," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    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. Ting Zhang & Dan Gerlowski & Zoltan Acs, 2022. "Working from home: small business performance and the COVID-19 pandemic," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 611-636, February.
    10. Cevat Giray Aksoy & Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Mathias Dolls & Pablo Zarate, 2023. "Time Savings When Working from Home," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 113, pages 597-603, May.
    11. Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nick & Davis, Steven J., 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," SocArXiv wfdbe, Center for Open Science.
    12. Hensher, David A. & Wei, Edward & Pellegrini, Andrea, 2025. "Accounting for the location and allocation of working hours throughout the working week: A discrete-continuous choice model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    13. Brave, Scott A. & Butters, R. Andrew & Fogarty, Michael, 2022. "The perils of working with big data, and a SMALL checklist you can use to recognize them," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 65(4), pages 481-492.
    14. Michael Gibbs & Friederike Mengel & Christoph Siemroth, 2023. "Work from Home and Productivity: Evidence from Personnel and Analytics Data on Information Technology Professionals," Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 7-41.
    15. Alessandra Fenizia & Tom Kirchmaier, 2024. "Not incentivized yet efficient: Working from home in the public sector," CEP Discussion Papers dp2036, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    16. Nikita Céspedes-Reynaga, 2025. "El trabajo a distancia y su influencia en las horas trabajadas, consumo e ingreso en el Perú," Working Papers 207, Peruvian Economic Association.
    17. Christopher T. Stanton & Pratyush Tiwari, 2021. "Housing Consumption and the Cost of Remote Work," NBER Working Papers 28483, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Hasan Bakhshi & Salvatore Novo & Giorgio Fazio, 2023. "The “Great Lockdown” and cultural consumption in the UK," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 47(4), pages 555-587, December.
    19. Ilyar Heydari Barardehi & Anna Kurowska, 2024. "Were Parents Synchronizing Their Home-Based Working Arrangements During the COVID-19 Pandemic?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 569-588, July.
    20. Rafiq, Rezwana & McNally, Michael G. & Sarwar Uddin, Yusuf & Ahmed, Tanjeeb, 2022. "Impact of working from home on activity-travel behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An aggregate structural analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 35-54.
    21. Cicala, Steve, 2023. "JUE Insight: Powering work from home," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    22. José Ignacio Giménez-Nadal & José Alberto Molina & Jorge Velilla, 2025. "Work from home, time allocation, and well-being: the impact of lockdowns," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 505-549, June.
    23. Bouzaghrane, Mohamed Amine & Obeid, Hassan & Villas-Boas, Sofia B. & Walker, Joan, 2024. "Influence of telecommuting on out-of-home time use and diversity of locations visited: Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    24. repec:osf:socarx:6veyt_v1 is not listed on IDEAS

    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. Hansen, Stephen & Lambert, Peter John & Bloom, Nicholas & Davis, Steven J. & Sadun, Raffaella & Taska, Bledi, 2023. "Remote Work across Jobs, Companies, and Space," IZA Discussion Papers 15980, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Arjun Ramani & Nicholas Bloom, 2021. "The Donut Effect of Covid-19 on Cities," NBER Working Papers 28876, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Charlene Marie Kalenkoski & Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia, 2022. "Impacts of COVID-19 on the self-employed," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 741-768, February.
    4. Erdsiek, Daniel, 2021. "Working from home during COVID-19 and beyond: Survey evidence from employers," ZEW Discussion Papers 21-051, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    5. Sangeeta Gupta & Poonam Devdutt & Urmila Jagadeeswari Itam, 2022. "Centrality of psychological well-being of IT employees during COVID-19 and beyond," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 49(4), pages 365-380, December.
    6. repec:osf:thesis:wdxuk_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Christos A. Makridis, 2025. "The Allocation of Time and Remote Work," CESifo Working Paper Series 12363, CESifo.
    8. Julia Darby & Stuart McIntyre & Graeme Roy, 2022. "What can analysis of 47 million job advertisements tell us about how opportunities for homeworking are evolving in the United Kingdom?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 281-302, July.
    9. Christian Kagerl & Julia Starzetz, 2023. "Working from home for good? Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and what this means for the future of work," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 229-265, January.
    10. Jose Maria Barrero & Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Brent H. Meyer, 2021. "COVID-19 Is a Persistent Reallocation Shock," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 287-291, May.
    11. Barry, John W. & Campello, Murillo & Graham, John R. & Ma, Yueran, 2022. "Corporate flexibility in a time of crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(3), pages 780-806.
    12. Filippos Petroulakis, 2023. "Task Content and Job Losses in the Great Lockdown," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 76(3), pages 586-613, May.
    13. Adams-Prassl, Abi & Boneva, Teodora & Golin, Marta & Rauh, Christopher, 2022. "Work that can be done from home: evidence on variation within and across occupations and industries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    14. Betcherman,Gordon & Giannakopoulos,Nicholas & Laliotis,Ioannis & Pantelaiou,Ioanna & Testaverde,Mauro & Tzimas,Giannis, 2020. "Reacting Quickly and Protecting Jobs : The Short-Term Impacts of the COVID-19 Lockdown on the Greek Labor Market," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9356, The World Bank.
    15. Alexander Bick & Adam Blandin & Aidan Caplan & Tristan Caplan, 2025. "Measuring Trends in Work from Home: Evidence from Six U.S. Datasets," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 107(15), pages 1-23, October.
    16. Nicholas Bloom & Steven J. Davis & Yulia Zhestkova, 2021. "COVID-19 Shifted Patent Applications toward Technologies That Support Working from Home," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 111, pages 263-266, May.
    17. Christopher T. Stanton & Pratyush Tiwari, 2021. "Housing Consumption and the Cost of Remote Work," NBER Working Papers 28483, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Adams-Prassl, A. & Boneva, T. & Golin, M. & Rauh, C., 2020. "Work Tasks That Can Be Done From Home: Evidence on Variation Within and Across Occupations and Industries," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2040, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    19. Hensvik, Lena & Le Barbanchon, Thomas & Rathelot, Roland, 2021. "Job search during the COVID-19 crisis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    20. Gomez-Herrera, Estrella & Mueller-Langer, Frank, 2024. "Does information disclosure affect the gender gap in bidding behavior? Empirical evidence from a natural experiment on a large online labor platform," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    21. Barrero, Jose Maria & Bloom, Nick & Davis, Steven J., 2020. "Why Working From Home Will Stick," SocArXiv wfdbe, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:bfi:wpaper:2020-132. 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: Toni Shears The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Toni Shears to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mfichus.html .

    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.