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  • 2021
  • Working Paper

Housing Consumption and the Cost of Remote Work

By: Christopher Stanton and Pratyush Tiwari
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
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Abstract

This paper estimates housing choice differences between households with and without remote workers. Prior to the pandemic, the expenditure share on housing was more than seven percent higher for remote households compared to similar non-remote households in the same commuting zone. Remote households’ higher housing expenditures arise from larger dwellings (more rooms) and a higher price per room. Pre-COVID, households with remote workers were actually located in areas with above-average housing costs, and sorting within-commuting zone to suburban or rural areas was not economically meaningful. Using the pre-COVID distribution of locations, we estimate how much additional pre-tax income would be necessary to compensate non-remote households for extra housing expenses arising from remote work in the absence of geographic mobility, and we compare this compensation to commercial office rents in major metro areas.

Keywords

Remote Work; Geographic Mobility; Housing; Cost; Geographic Location; Income

Citation

Stanton, Christopher, and Pratyush Tiwari. "Housing Consumption and the Cost of Remote Work." NBER Working Paper Series, No. 28483, February 2021.
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About The Author

Christopher T. Stanton

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

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More from the Authors
  • Employee Responses to Compensation Changes: Evidence from a Sales Firm By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton
  • Who Benefits from Online Gig Economy Platforms? By: Christopher Stanton and Catherine Thomas
  • Zoom Video Communications: Building a Culture of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion During COVID-19 By: Karen G. Mills, Scott Duke Kominers, Christopher Stanton, Andy Wu, George Gonzalez and Gabriella Elanbeck
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