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Working from home as an economic and social change: A review

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  • Lee, Kangoh

Abstract

WFH (working from home) has been crucial to the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic and is expected to continue to grow in importance even after the pandemic. WFH is becoming more popular among employees due to benefits such as flexible work schedules and no or less frequent commuting. Given the prevalence of WFH, a large literature has studied various aspects of WFH, and this paper reviews the literature. As WFH is a work mode, the literature has mainly considered labor-economics related issues, including the feasibility of WFH across jobs and the effects of WFH on workers’ productivity and well-being. However, this paper views WFH as an economic and social change not just as a new work mode, as WFH has far-reaching effects on our society and economy. As such, this paper emphasizes the topics that have received relatively less attention such as WFH as a job amenity and the effects of WFH on the environment.

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  • Lee, Kangoh, 2023. "Working from home as an economic and social change: A review," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:labeco:v:85:y:2023:i:c:s0927537123001379
    DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102462
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Working from home; Work mode; Productivity; Environment; Education; Crime; Family proximity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations
    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • J3 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs
    • J6 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers
    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior
    • R1 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics

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