Effects of Reduced Workplace Presence on COVID-19 Deaths: An Instrumental-Variables Approach. / John McLaren, Su Wang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McLaren, John.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Wang, Su.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w28275.

NBER working paper series no. w28275

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

Numerous government policies have attempted to keep workers out of the workplace, on the assumption that this will lower transmission of COVID-19. We test that assumption, measuring the effect of aggregate workplace absence on US COVID deaths at the county level through August. Instrumenting with an index of how many local workers pre-pandemic can work from home, based on differences in county occupational mix, we find no effect of workplace absence until mid-May, then a sharply rising effect. By August, moving 10 percent of a county's workers from the workplace would lower deaths there by three quarters one month later.

Notes:

Print version record

December 2020.