Choosing When to Work: The Productivity Effects of Flexible Scheduling

Do flexible working hours benefit or hurt productivity? To answer this question, we conducted an experiment on a major online freelance platform. We began with three data entry job postings that were identical except for the level of flexibility in work hours. For each job, we invited a randomly selected group of freelancers to apply, and we hired all freelancers who accepted the job offer. Next, among the freelancers hired for jobs with no or limited flexibility, a randomly chosen subset was later granted full flexibility. We find that, compared to freelancers hired for the flexible job, those who had no flexibility in choosing work hours produced 25% fewer correct entries. Around 40% of this effect is explained by selection - more productive workers are more likely to choose flexible jobs. The remaining 60% is a direct effect of reduced flexibility in choosing work hour