DeFiPP Research Seminar - Pierre M. Picard

The Zoom City: Working From Home and Urban Land Use

How would cities change if working from home (WFH) persisted in the post-pandemic era? This paper investigates the impact of WFH in the internal structure of monocentric cities where production is characterized by management and employee spillovers. We find that business land rents decrease while residential land rents fall close to the business center and increase in the suburbs. WFH raises urban productivity and average wages only in large cities. The paper also studies the optimal fraction of WFH from a residents' and
welfare point of view. Our results suggest that workers-residents have incentives to adopt an inefficiently high WFH scheme. The implementation of remote work in the short run - where rents and wages are fixed - implies higher benefits for long-distance commuters and lower benefits or even losses for firms and short-distance commuters. Finally, we show that advances in digital technology, which increase the productivity of remote workers, lead to increased welfare benefits.

Contact : Christian Kiedaisch - christian.kiedaisch@unamur.be
Plus d'info : https://defipp.unamur.be/seminars/2022-2023
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