Away from Home and Back: Coordinating (Remote) Workers in 1800 and 2020 / Réka Juhász, Mara P. Squicciarini, Nico Voigtländer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Juhász, Réka.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Squicciarini, Mara P.

Voigtländer, Nico.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28251.

NBER working paper series no. w28251

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

This paper examines the future of remote work by drawing parallels between two contexts: The move from home to factory-based production during the Industrial Revolution and the shift to work from home today. Both are characterized by a similar trade-off: the potential productivity advantage of the new working arrangement made possible by technology (mechanization or ICT), versus organizational barriers such as coordinating workers. Using contemporary data, we show that organizational barriers seem to be present today. Without further technological or organizational innovations, remote work may not be here to stay just yet.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2020.