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Who and how many can work from home in Norway?. Evidence from task descriptions

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Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis has forced great societal changes, including forcing many to work remotely (work from home) in an effort to increase social distancing. The ability to work fromhome has long been considered a perk, but we have few estimates of how many are actually able to work from home. This paper attempts to estimate the share of the Norwegian jobs that can be performed remotely by combining register-based labor statistics and the official documentationof the ISCO-08 standard. We find that approximately 39% of Norwegian jobs can be performedat home. The results suggest that the pandemic and the government’s attempts to mitigate thiscrisis may have a quite uneven impact on the population. Those who are already disadvantagedare often less likely to have remote-friendly jobs and thus are hit more severely.

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  • Henning Holgersen & Zhiyang Jia & Simen Svenkerud, 2020. "Who and how many can work from home in Norway?. Evidence from task descriptions," Discussion Papers 935, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    • Handle: RePEc:ssb:dispap:935
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    1. Simon Mongey & Laura Pilossoph & Alexander Weinberg, 2021. "Which workers bear the burden of social distancing?," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 19(3), pages 509-526, September.
    2. Dingel, Jonathan I. & Neiman, Brent, 2020. "How many jobs can be done at home?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
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    Cited by:

    1. Isaure Delaporte & Julia Escobar & Werner Peña, 2021. "The distributional consequences of social distancing on poverty and labour income inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 1385-1443, October.
    2. Ammielou Gaduena & Christopher Ed Caboverde & John Paul Flaminiano, 2022. "Telework potential in the Philippines," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 33(2), pages 434-454, June.
    3. Anna Kurowska & Anna Matysiak & Beata Osiewalska, 2023. "Working from Home During Covid-19 Pandemic and Changes to Fertility Intentions Among Parents," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-31, December.
    4. Kosteas, Vasilios D. & Renna, Francesco & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2022. "Covid-19 and Working from Home: toward a "new normal"?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1013, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    5. Caselli, Mauro & Fracasso, Andrea & Scicchitano, Sergio, 2020. "From the lockdown to the new normal: An analysis of the limitations to individual mobility in Italy following the Covid-19 crisis," GLO Discussion Paper Series 683, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    6. Emil Mihaylov, 2022. "Working from Home in the Netherlands: Looking Inside the Blackbox of Work and Occupations," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 22-096/VI, Tinbergen Institute.
    7. Svenn-Erik Mamelund & Jessica Dimka & Nan Zou Bakkeli, 2021. "Social Disparities in Adopting Non-pharmaceutical Interventions During COVID-19 in Norway," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 37(3), pages 302-328, September.
    8. Fadinger, Harald & Schymik, Jan & Alipour, Jean-Victor, 2020. "My Home Is My Castle -- The Benefits of Working from Home During a Pandemic Crisis: Evidence from Germany," CEPR Discussion Papers 14871, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Tai Ming Wut & Stephanie Wing Lee & Jing (Bill) Xu, 2022. "Work from Home Challenges of the Pandemic Era in Hong Kong: A Stimulus-Organism-Response Perspective," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(6), pages 1-17, March.
    10. Eberegbe, Georgina & Giovanis, Eleftherios, 2020. "Exploring The Impact of Job Satisfaction Domains on Firm Performance: Evidence from Great Britain," MPRA Paper 104046, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    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
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R32 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Other Spatial Production and Pricing Analysis

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