In practice, the ability to work from home depends also on household composition, in particular the presence and age of children (Alon et al. This assessment is based purely on job task characteristics. Women have a far higher ability to WFH (51.5%) than men (37.4%). Figure 1b shows that mean WFH ability differs strongly across demographic groups: it is 20 percentage points lower for high school dropouts compared to graduates, and 15 percentage points lower for the self-employed compared to wage employees. While the majority of jobs in managerial and professional occupations and in clerical support (groups 1-4) can be carried out from home, few jobs in elementary occupations, crafts, or occupations involving plant or machine operation (groups 6-9) can be done remotely. Figure 1a shows the feasibility of WFH for nine major occupation groups. At the individual level, WFH ability varies strongly with a worker’s occupation and demographics. Overall, 45% of urban employment could be done remotely in the STEP countries. The data contain information on workers’ job tasks, which we use to construct a measure of potential WFH ability. These cover a representative sample of workers in urban areas of ten lower and upper-middle-income countries in 2012-2013, ranging in income per capita (ppp) from $3,700 (Kenya) to $15,000 (Macedonia). We develop a measure of the ability to work from home using the first two rounds of the STEP household surveys. We show that the effect of specific policies depends both on a country's aggregate WFH ability and on its sectoral structure. 2020), in this column we provide estimates on the ability to WFH and on the effect of realistic lockdown policies on employment and GDP for a broad cross-section of countries, ranging in income per capita from Niger to Luxembourg. Djankov and Panizza 2020).īased on a recent paper (Gottlieb et al. There is no similar evidence on middle- or low-income countries, despite some very recent work on Covid-19 there (e.g. (2020) projected a decline in GDP due to a lockdown of six weeks duration of 5.6% for France Fadinger and Schymik (2020) project a decline of 1.6% of GDP per week of lockdown for Germany. Yet, as of now, the joint assessment of the ability to work from home and of the effects of lockdown policies on employment and output exists only for some rich countries. Saltiel (2020) was the first to assess the feasibility of work from home using data sources from developing countries.1 (2020) estimate 45% and 43% of effective WFH employment for the US and the UK, respectively. However, this outcome hinges on the ability of self-employed farmers to work from home (Gottlieb et al. Projecting their measure of WFH ability by occupation across countries, the authors find that in the poorest economies, only around 5% of employment can be executed from home. Dingel and Neiman (2020) estimate that in the US, 37% of jobs are amenable to WFH. Since the start of the pandemic, several papers have assessed the ability to work from home. At the same time, countries differ substantially in their sectoral composition, implying that lockdowns targeting the same set of sectors may produce unequal outcomes in different economies. Cross-country differences in the ability to work from home (WFH) are therefore crucial in evaluating the economic implications of such policies. In sectors required to shutter workplaces, work can only be conducted from employees’ homes. In response to the outbreak of Covid-19, 114 countries have implemented policies that require either the closure of, or the implementation of working from home, for all but essential workplaces (Hale et al.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |