9  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  9  References Adams-Prassl, A., Boneva, T., Golin, M. and Rauh, C. (2020) ‘Work Tasks That Can Be Done From Home: Evidence on the Variation Within and Across Occupations and Industries’ Cambridge INET Working Paper 2023. Alon, T, M Doepke, J Olmstead-Rumsey and M Tertilt (2020), “The Impact of COVID-19 on Gender Equality”, Covid Economics, Issue 4, CEPR Press. Andrew et al (2020). ‘Learning during the lockdown: real-time data on children’s experiences during home learning’ Institute for Fiscal Studies briefing note. APSCo (2020) ‘Flexible working increases five-fold’. Available at https://www.thehrdirector.com/businessnews/flexible-agile-working/flexible-working-increase-five-fold4072019/ Barrero, JM, Bloom, N and Davis, S (2020a) ’60 million fewer commuting hours per day: How Americans use time saved by working from home.’ VoxEU Barrero, JM, Bloom, N and Davis, S (2020b) ‘COVID-19 Is Also a Reallocation Shock’ Becker Freidman Institute Working Paper No. 2020-59 Bartik, A., Cullen, Z., Glaesser, E., Luca, M., and Stanton, C. (2020) ‘How the COVID-19 crisis is reshaping remote working’ Vox-EU Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J., and Ying, Z. J. (2015). ‘Does Working from Home Work? Evidence from a Chinese Experiment’ The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(1), 165–218. Blundell, R., Joyce, R,. Costa Dias, M. and Xu, X. (2020). ‘Covid-19: the impacts of the pandemic on inequality’. Institute for Fiscal Studies briefing note. Boeri, T,. Caiumi, A., and Paccagnella, M. (2020) ‘Mitigating the work-security trade-off while rebooting the economy’ Covid Economics, Issue 2, CEPR Press. Cui, R,. Ding, H,.
Survey evidence for Japan suggests around a 7% hit to labour productivity from home-working.8 Similar evidence can be found in studies of the UK.9 Survey data from the ONS paints a similar picture, with almost a quarter of workers believing their productivity has been negatively affected by home-working, compared with only 12% saying it has improved.10 These differences in the productivity effects of home-working, pre and post-Covid, are perhaps unsurprising. Mandatory home-working thrust large numbers of workers into an alien working environment – their kitchens, bedrooms and attics. There was no option of self-selecting. That meant, for many, not only a worse working environment but a steep learning curve as they adapted to new ways of working. Productivity, predictably, was hardest hit among those with least prior experience of home-working.11  5  These shifts are also likely to affect other labour market and economic behaviour, such as labour market participation and wage growth. See, for example, Mas and Pallais (2017) 6 Bartik et al (2020) 7 Dutcher (2012). 8 Morikawa (2020). 9 See Felstead and Reuschke (2020). 10 ONS (2020b). 11 Morikawa (2020). 4  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches and @BoE_PressOffice  4  At the same time, we should be cautious about jumping to too negative a conclusion when assessing the economic costs of the shift to home-working. Even if the amount workers produce each hour has fallen, as evidence and anecdote tentatively suggests, this need not imply workers’ overall economic contribution has fallen.