Applied Economics Lunch Seminar

Du 30/04/2024 de 12:30 à 13:30

R2-21

DAVIS Lucas(Stanford University)
ÖZGÜZEL Cem(CES & IZA)
GIRAY AKSOY CEVAT ((EBRD & Kings College London))
BLOOM Nicholas(Stanford University)
MARINO Victoria(EBRD)

Shift to Remote Work, Performance, and Well-being

How does a permanent shift to remote work affect firm-level outcomes? Leveraging administrative panel data from 2019 to 2022 from a large call centre where employees transitioned to permanent remote work in response to the pandemic, we find a significant increase in call centre agents' performance after adopting remote work. This performance gain is driven by reduced time spent on individual calls, decreased administrative tasks, and fewer employee breaks. Importantly, our findings demonstrate that these gains do not compromise call quality, as shown by the absence of adverse effects on various call quality measures. To provide a comprehensive understanding, we supplement our analysis with survey data collected from call centre agents, which sheds light on the underlying mechanisms of our results.