| Abstract |
With the explosive growth of work from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic, the landscape of workplace amenity has changed dramatically in recent years. This paper uses data from the Survey of Working Attitudes and Arrangements to estimate the compensating wage differential, and by extension, worker pecuniary valuation of the ability to WFH in the United States. Results show that workers face a wage penalty for the ability to WFH. To go from low WFH frequency to high WFH frequency, workers sacrifice approximately 1.73% of their salary. To go from low WFH frequency to full-time WFH, workers sacrifice approximately 2.27% of their salary. The paper also investigates the heterogeneity of the wage penalty across industries. Analysis suggests that industries that have a higher share of jobs that can be done remotely, such as "information" and "finance and insurance," have a lower wage penalty for WFH.
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Unemployment insurance (UI) significantly influences individual behavior and labor market outcomes. In this study, we use Japanese bank transaction data to examine the experiences of UI recipients. By identifying job transitions and changes in salary between jobs, we investigate how UI affects unemployment duration and the quality of reemployment. We find that UI recipients tend to remain unemployed longer than non-recipients. Among UI recipients, younger workers display a distinct pattern: they are more likely to stay unemployed longer, even though their overall unemployment spells are relatively shorter. While UI provides income stability during joblessness, we also observe a “rush effect”: recipients tend to accept lower-paying jobs as their UI benefits near expiration.
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