| Abstract: |
Using administrative firm-level data covering the universe of remote workers
in Italy, and leveraging exogenous pre-pandemic variation in firm-specific
access to fibre broadband as an instrument, this paper investigates the impact
of post-pandemic adoption of work from home (WFH) on firm productivity. We
find that WFH had a large negative impact on productivity during the pandemic.
However, larger firms and those with prior ICT investments mitigated these
losses. In the longer term, the impact of WFH is no longer significant. Yet,
we find suggestive evidence that firms employing highly qualified workers
experienced productivity gains. |