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Not incentivized yet efficient: working from home in the public sector

Author

Listed:
  • Fenizia, Alessandra
  • Kirchmaier, Thomas

Abstract

This paper studies whether working from home (WFH) affects workers' performance in public sector jobs. Studying public sector initiatives allows us to establish baseline estimates on the impact of WFH net of incentives. Exploiting novel administrative data and plausibly exogenous variation in work location, we find that WFH increases productivity by 12%. These productivity gains are primarily driven by reduced distractions. They are not explained by differences in quality, shift length, or task allocation. The productivity gains more than double when tasks are assigned by the supervisor.

Suggested Citation

  • Fenizia, Alessandra & Kirchmaier, Thomas, 2024. "Not incentivized yet efficient: working from home in the public sector," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 126773, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:126773
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/126773/
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    working from home; productivity; public sector;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • J45 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Public Sector Labor Markets
    • L23 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Organization of Production
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management

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