IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp14773.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Remote Working and Mental Health during the First Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Bertoni, Marco

    (University of Padova)

  • Cavapozzi, Danilo

    (Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia)

  • Pasini, Giacomo

    (Ca' Foscari University of Venice)

  • Pavese, Caterina

    (University of Padua)

Abstract

We use longitudinal data from the SHARE survey to estimate the causal effect of remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health of senior Europeans. We face endogeneity concerns both for the probability of being employed during the pandemic and for the choice of different work arrangements conditional on employment. Our research design overcomes these issues by exploiting variation in the technical feasibility of remote working across occupations and in the legal restrictions to in-presence work across sectors. We estimate heterogeneous effects of remote working on mental health: we find negative effects for respondents with children at home and for those living in countries with low restrictions or low excess death rates due to the pandemic. On the other hand, the effect is positive for men and for respondents with no co-residing children.

Suggested Citation

  • Bertoni, Marco & Cavapozzi, Danilo & Pasini, Giacomo & Pavese, Caterina, 2021. "Remote Working and Mental Health during the First Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic," IZA Discussion Papers 14773, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14773
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp14773.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    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. Thomas Hale & Noam Angrist & Rafael Goldszmidt & Beatriz Kira & Anna Petherick & Toby Phillips & Samuel Webster & Emily Cameron-Blake & Laura Hallas & Saptarshi Majumdar & Helen Tatlow, 2021. "A global panel database of pandemic policies (Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker)," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(4), pages 529-538, April.
    3. Gema Zamarro & María J. Prados, 2021. "Gender differences in couples’ division of childcare, work and mental health during COVID-19," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 11-40, March.
    4. Nicholas Bloom & James Liang & John Roberts & Zhichun Jenny Ying, 2015. "Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(1), pages 165-218.
    5. Dingel, Jonathan I. & Neiman, Brent, 2020. "How many jobs can be done at home?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    6. Barili, E. & Grembi, V. & Rosso, A.C., 2021. "Women in Distress: Mental Health and the COVID-19 Pandemic," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 21/07, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    7. Alexandre Mas & Amanda Pallais, 2017. "Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(12), pages 3722-3759, December.
    8. Zhiming Cheng & Silvia Mendolia & Alfredo R. Paloyo & David A. Savage & Massimiliano Tani, 2021. "Working parents, financial insecurity, and childcare: mental health in the time of COVID-19 in the UK," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 123-144, March.
    9. Abi Adams-Prassl & Teodora Boneva & Marta Golin & Christopher Rauh, 2020. "The Impact of the Coronavirus Lockdown on Mental Health: Evidence from the US," Working Papers 2020-030, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    10. Matteo Sostero & Santo Milasi & John Hurley & Enrique Fernandez-Macias & Martina Bisello, 2020. "Teleworkability and the COVID-19 crisis: a new digital divide?," JRC Working Papers on Labour, Education and Technology 2020-05, Joint Research Centre.
    11. David Roodman, 2011. "Fitting fully observed recursive mixed-process models with cmp," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 11(2), pages 159-206, June.
    12. Marta Angelici & Paola Profeta, 2020. "Smart-working: Work Flexibility Without Constraints," CHILD Working Papers Series 77 JEL Classification: J1, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    13. Paolo Barbieri & Albachiara Boffelli & Stefano Elia & Luciano Fratocchi & Matteo Kalchschmidt & Danny Samson, 2020. "What can we learn about reshoring after Covid-19?," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 13(3), pages 131-136, December.
    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. Guillaume Gueguen & Claudia Senik, 2022. "Adopting Telework. The causal impact of working from home on subjective wellbeing," Working Papers halshs-03455306, HAL.
    2. Bilgrami, A., 2023. "Working from home and mental health: before and during the COVID-19 pandemic," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 23/03, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    3. Gueguen, Guillaume & Senik, Claudia, 2022. "Adopting Telework. The causal impact of working from home on subjective well-being in 2020," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 2201, CEPREMAP.
    4. Bilgrami, Anam, 2023. "Working from home and mental health: Before and during the COVID-19 pandemic," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1265, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. 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.
    6. Di Novi, C. & Paruolo, P. & Verzillo, S., 2022. "The Role of Employment Protection Legislation Regimes in Shaping the Impact of Job Disruption on Older Workers’ Mental Health in Times of COVID-19," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 22/03, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    7. Di Novi, Cinzia & Paruolo, Paolo & Verzillo, Stefano, 2023. "Does labour protection influence mental-health responses to employment shocks? Evidence on older workers in Europe," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    8. Guillaume Gueguen & Claudia Senik, 2022. "Adopting Telework. The causal impact of working from home on subjective wellbeing," PSE Working Papers halshs-03455306, HAL.
    9. Ishii, Kayoko & Yamamoto, Isamu & Nakayama, Mao, 2023. "Potential benefits and determinants of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Japanese Household Panel Data," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

    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. Danilo Cavapozzi, 2022. "The causal impact of remote working on depression during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic," French Stata Users' Group Meetings 2022 10, Stata Users Group.
    2. Gavoille, Nicolas & Hazans, Mihails, 2022. "Personality Traits, Remote Work and Productivity," IZA Discussion Papers 15486, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Deole, Sumit S. & Deter, Max & Huang, Yue, 2023. "Home sweet home: Working from home and employee performance during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    4. Essbaumer, Elisabeth, 2022. "Home Office is here to stay? Access to Home Office and Remote Work Potentials across Swiss Industries," Economics Working Paper Series 2213, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    5. Arntz, Melanie & Ben Yahmed, Sarra & Berlingieri, Francesco, 2022. "Working from home, hours worked and wages: Heterogeneity by gender and parenthood," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Erdsiek, Daniel & Rost, Vincent, 2023. "How do managers form their expectations about working from home? Survey experiments on the perception of productivity," ZEW Discussion Papers 23-018, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    7. Abrardi Laura & Grinza Elena & Manello Alessandro & Porta Flavio, 2022. "Work From Home Arrangements and Organizational Performance in Italian SMEs: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic," Working papers 076, Department of Economics, Social Studies, Applied Mathematics and Statistics (Dipartimento di Scienze Economico-Sociali e Matematico-Statistiche), University of Torino.
    8. Erdsiek, Daniel & Rost, Vincent, 2022. "Working from home after COVID-19: Firms expect a persistent and intensive shift," ZEW Expert Briefs 22-06, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    9. Vij, Akshay & Souza, Flavio F. & Barrie, Helen & Anilan, V. & Sarmiento, Sergio & Washington, Lynette, 2023. "Employee preferences for working from home in Australia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 782-800.
    10. A. Cetrulo & D. Guarascio & M. E. Virgillito, 2022. "Working from home and the explosion of enduring divides: income, employment and safety risks," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 39(2), pages 345-402, July.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. Behrens, Kristian & Kichko, Sergei & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2024. "Working from home: Too much of a good thing?," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    14. Bloom, Nicholas & Davis, Steven J. & Hansen, Stephen & Lambert, Peter John & Sadun, Raffaella & Taska, Bledi, 2023. "Remote work across jobs, companies and space," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121302, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Alipour, Jean-Victor & Falck, Oliver & Schüller, Simone, 2023. "Germany’s capacity to work from home," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    16. Michele Mariani & Livia Ristuccia & Pasqualino Montanaro, 2023. "Propensity to work remotely in the Bank of Italy: a behavioural analysis," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 753, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    17. Jun Hyung Kim & Yu Kyung Koh & Jinseong Park, 2023. "Mental Health Consequences of Working from Home during the Pandemic," Global Economic Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 18-50, January.
    18. 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.
    19. Squicciarini, Mara & Juhász, Réka & Voigtländer, Nico, 2020. "Away from Home and Back: Coordinating (Remote) Workers in 1800 and 2020," CEPR Discussion Papers 15578, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Bamieh, Omar & Ziegler, Lennart, 2022. "Are remote work options the new standard? Evidence from vacancy postings during the COVID-19 crisis," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    mental health; remote working; COVID-19; SHARE;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • 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
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp14773. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.