Working from Home, Wages, and Regional Inequality in the Light of COVID-19

Abstract

We use the most recent wave of the German Qualifications and Career Survey to reveal a substantial wage premium in a Mincer regression for workers performing their job from home. The premium accounts for more than 10% and persists within narrowly defined jobs as well as after controlling for workplace characteristics. In a next step, we provide evidence on substantial regional variation in the share of jobs that can be done from home in Germany. Our analysis reveals a strong, positive relation between the share of jobs with working from home opportunities and the mean worker income in a district. Assuming that jobs with the opportunity of remote work are more crisis proof, our results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic might affect poorer regions to a greater extent. Hence, examining regional disparities is central for policy-makers in choosing economic policies to mitigate the consequences of this crisis.

The heterogeneous severity of COVID-19 in African countries: A modeling approach

“…In addition, one more important control measure is school closure, which has been massively criticized in Africa since many countries on the continent spontaneously closed down schools with the absence of exhaustive e-learning systems and inadequate infrastructure, as has been practiced in many other countries (22). Some of the main challenges regarding the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa include the imposition of the hand-hygiene policy when the majority of Africans do not have access to an adequate and portable water supply, temperature screening at airports for travelers without considering asymptomatic carriers (asymptomatically infected people), the impossibility of work from home policies, and an insufficient quantity of PPEs, especially for frontline health workers, insufficient data sharing, and illegal crossing of borders at non-official points of entry (2,(26)(27)(28)50).…”

Social Disparities in Adopting Non-pharmaceutical Interventions During COVID-19 in Norway

“…In the UK, being able to work from home was correlated with higher education, higher income, more savings, and people who own their own houses (Atchison et al, 2020). In general, workers that cannot work from home tended to be lower paid than workers who can work from home (Atchison et al, 2020;Baker, 2020;Dingel & Neiman, 2020;Irlacher & Koch, 2020;. In other words, most research on this topic focused on income, education, and occupation type as explanatory variables and demonstrated that people who were already disadvantaged were less able to comply with preventive measures such as social distancing, stayat-home, or shelter-in-place policies.…”

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Working Conditions, Employment, Career Development and Well-Being of Refugee Researchers

“…The geographical and social context is crucial with urban areas having a higher ratio of WFH positions than rural areas, and vulnerable parts of the society (i.e., migrants, single parents, low qualified workers) have less likelihood to get such jobs [10]. A lower share of jobs with the WFH options is found in East Germany and a much higher share in urban areas, such as, Berlin, Darmstadt, Hamburg and Munich [11]. Analysis of data from several countries has shown that richer and more developed countries have had a higher number of jobs that can be run from home [10], whereas in regions with a low share of WFH jobs, a lower average income has been observed [11].…”

“…A lower share of jobs with the WFH options is found in East Germany and a much higher share in urban areas, such as, Berlin, Darmstadt, Hamburg and Munich [11]. Analysis of data from several countries has shown that richer and more developed countries have had a higher number of jobs that can be run from home [10], whereas in regions with a low share of WFH jobs, a lower average income has been observed [11].…”

“…However, the COVID-19 pandemic may have a more negative impact on poorer districts [11]. The analysis of WFH in developing countries such as Peru, Costa Rica and Brazil has shown heterogeneity, and is strongly dependent on the type of work, the gender and the employee's skills, with educated workers and women having higher chances of being suitable for WFH [12].…”